http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=security&articleId=9004809 

By Eric Lai
November 06, 2006 
Computerworld

SEATTLE -- Starbucks Corp. has lost four laptops, including two with the 
names and Social Security numbers of nearly 60,000 current and former 
employees.

There is no indication that any of the private information for its 
"partners" -- Starbucks' terminology for its employees -- was misused, 
the coffee chain said in a statement Friday.

The laptops, which were password-protected, went missing from Starbucks' 
Corporate Support Center in Seattle. They included private information 
for employees, mostly American and some Canadian, at all levels who 
worked at Starbucks before Dec. 31, 2003. The company said it discovered 
that the laptops were missing on Sept. 6 and began an internal 
investigation.

The company is notifying all employees whose information was believed to 
be on the missing laptops. It is also offering free credit-protection 
services to those potentially affected.

A Starbucks spokesman declined to describe what other security 
safeguards, if any, the lost laptops contained.

The company said the laptops, which at the time were not in regular use, 
may still be in Starbucks' possession.

"We are currently reinforcing our corporate policies and updating 
procedures related to the protection of personal data in an effort to 
ensure that this type of incident does not occur in the future," the 
company said.


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