Write your congress person!

Over a month ago, an employee of Bank of America had their laptop stolen. On the laptop were the names and credit card numbers of about 80,000 Department of Justice employees. The laptop was password protected but the data itself was unencrypted. (WTF?!) This follows a recent deluge of theft and fraud involving people's personal information kept with banks. Probably, the only reason this laptop case made it into the media is because of California's law requiring banks to notify consumers about possible identity theft. I'm tired of this. We need to enact laws at the federal that will bring pressure on agencies that collect personal information. Laws like you can't share sensitive information about consumers with subsidiaries and that if you lose more than 100 records, you have to notify everyone (not just consumers in California). I urge you to write your congress person about this. Otherwise, it could be your data that ends up on the street and you won't know about it until months later when your credit gets dinged.

Laptop with credit card info for 80,000 DOJ workers stolen - Computerworld