IBM loses retirees' personal info (AP)

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

IBM loses retirees' personal info

Tue May 15, 6:32 PM ET

ARMONK, N.Y. - IBM Corp., one of the world's leading providers of
encryption and other data-management technologies, is in the
uncomfortable position of trying to solve its own mystery involving
missing computer tapes with sensitive information about employees
and records of customer transactions.

An outside vendor was transporting the tapes from one IBM facility
to another on Feb. 23 when the tapes fell out of a contractor's
vehicle in Westchester County, N.Y., not far from IBM headquarters
in Armonk. IBM representatives went to the scene and couldn't find
the tapes, spokesman Fred McNeese said Tuesday.

-snip-

Even one backup tape likely has room for information on thousands
of employees or customer accounts. McNeese would not reveal how
many tapes were gone or how many employees or clients were
affected. He said some of the tapes were cloaked by encryption,
but not all of them.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070515/ap_on_hi_te/ibm_lost_tapes