14 DAY TRIAL // You can never be too secure! But if you do have well defended PCs and such, you can never know what is going to happen in real life, that will mess up something in your data base. You can get all sorts of fire-walls installed, and have anti-virus programs running all the time, but what's the use of all these when data is stolen the old fashion way - the whole PC gets lifted!
I've been yapping a lot on the fact that just because you're not in a network doesn't make your data secure, and the following is one case that will prove my point.
A laptop that is thought to contain Social Security Numbers and other info on 280.000 New York City retirees has gone missing, as NetworkWorld informs us. It seems to have been stolen from one of the city's Financial Information Services Agency's employees while this individual was in a restaurant. I'm not sure if it has been stolen for its value as a laptop, to be sold as a second hand machine, or for the sensitive data on it; in any case, it could affect a lot of people, that's why the pensioners will get informed about this.
The FISA said that they don't know exactly what information had been stored on that laptop and what part of their database this will affect. They have also stated that the data could have been encrypted but they can't tell for sure, as I've read on the same site. This is all pretty much unclear to me and in my opinion, it doesn't seem like anything to worry about, because nowadays, hackers that want to steal data resort to more sophisticated measures than simply snatching a laptop.