Data Theft Hits Red Cross

A laptop computer with personal information on thousands of blood donors was stolen from an American Red Cross office in Dallas, Texas, the Associated Press reports on MSNBC.com.

The data included Social Security numbers, medical information, and sexual and disease histories of donors, the AP reports, but Red Cross officials say the information was encrypted.

Three laptops were stolen from a locked closet in the organization’s Farmers Branch office in May, although only one of them contained personal information, according to the AP. Donors whose information was stored on the laptop were not notified of the theft by the Red Cross—which wasn’t legally required to do so, according to the AP.

Gordon Bass, acting chief information security officer with the national Red Cross, told the AP that the organization’s supervisors have their own user names and passwords. The system is restricted so that information can be accessed only during blood drives or when new data is uploaded to a central database, he said.

— Compiled by Dave Gradijan

Related Links:

• Data Theft at the VA
• When the Dike Breaks: Responding to the Inevitable Data Breach

Keep checking in at our Security Feed page, or subscribe via RSS, for updated news coverage.