Incident: AMEX subsidiary loses laptop with personal information on 230K customers and advisers

From today's New York Times:

Ameriprise Loses Data on 230,000 Customers and Advisers - New York Times

Ameriprise Financial, the investment advisory unit spun off from American Express last year, said today that lists with the personal information of about 230,000 customers and financial advisers were potentially exposed to fraud.

The breach occurred in late December after a company laptop was stolen from an employee's car. It contained lists of reassigned customer accounts that were being stored unencrypted on a computer in violation of Ameriprise's rules.

The information on the laptop included the names and Social Security numbers of more than 70,000 current and former financial advisers and the names and internal account numbers of about 158,000 customers. The data was being stored in separate lists, but it is possible that there could be some overlap between the two.

Andy MacMillan, an Ameriprise spokesman, said that it was unlikely the thief knew that the customer and employee data were being stored on the laptop and the risk of "any data being used or discovered is very low." He said no other personal information was exposed.

Technorati tags: Privacy :: Personal Information :: Theft :: Identity Theft.