August 19, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Reporting Data Loss
August 20, 2008 at 3:43 am
Even though the cards were returned, you can't be sure they weren't skimmed and duplicated while they were out of your sight. It's a good think the cards are cancelled, because you never know what's happened to them while they were away.
August 20, 2008 at 4:51 am
Steve,
I try to limit my losses with my wallet, by carrying only the stuff I think I'll need - not all my credit cards, only a small amount of cash etc. This way in the event of a loss, It's less of a hassle.
That said, most of the companies i've worked for have the policy that no client data should be on laptops... there are obvously a few exceptions to that policy but in general client info isn't in the databases.
Laptops that do contain sensitive data have that data encrypted. with EFS in windows, bitlocker, DB encryption there's not much of an excuse for data being compromised. I think with a little care and extra effort the data could be protected better.
Mark
August 20, 2008 at 6:54 am
It's too bad that we didn't hear about the funny doings which led to losing the purse.
August 20, 2008 at 7:12 am
Its always best to just carry cash. Pay for food at a restaurant with cash. Pay for stuff at the store with cash. There are so many advantages, including limited loss if your purse or wallet gets stolen, plus it has been proven that you actually will spend less if you only pay for things with cash.
If you absolutely need to carry a card, just carry one with you. Keep it simple!
August 20, 2008 at 7:24 am
Come on Steve, 'fess up to what lead to YOU losing your wife's purse! After all, while it may be fodder for many dinner parties to come, most of us will never get to attend those soirees.
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Buy the ticket, take the ride. -- Hunter S. Thompson
August 20, 2008 at 7:26 am
I think I have you beat, Steve.
My wife lost her purse at a club one night years ago. Actually it was in the pocket of her sister's coat, and her sister lost the coat.
Realizing that the "thief" had her cards/identification (with home address), and keys, I not only canceled the cards but I also rekeyed our house and her car. I just didn't like the fact that someone who would steal a coat would also have the address / key pairings.
Then the club called the sister two days later to say they found her coat. It had fallen between two seating booths, it was not stolen after all. *roll eyes*.
The silver lining is that it was kind of fun to take out the locks and go get them rekeyed. I like locks and locksmithing. 🙂
August 20, 2008 at 7:55 am
OK, OK, I knew someone would ask. Here's your laugh for the morning.
She borrowed my car since I was out with the kids in the Prius and she wanted to run to the store. My wife tends to leave her purse in the car at the house, so when I was packing up to get my son to karate, her purse, and all my baseball stuff, was in the back seat.
I grabbed the purse, a book in the car, and was trying to get the sports bag out of the back. It was too much, so I must have set her purse on the edge of the targa top frame. The roof was off and I figured I'd see it.
I unloaded the car, and two kids got in, both standing up to take advantage of no roof. Either one of them knocked it off the back or when I blipped the gas when starting off did, in any case, I have a rear spoiler on the car and it must have landed there. I never noticed.
I drove to town, and on the way down, some kids were following me and acting funny. They got close, then backed off, pulled up next to me and then backed off again. It was strange. They also followed me through a turn that very, very few people take. Somewhere when I took a sharp turn near the karate school, or into the parking lot, the purse must have fallen off. Someone found it near there off a bike trail a couple days later.
My wife called me 30 minutes later as they were getting ready to leave and I swore I'd set it in the garage or on my desk. Needless to say I was wrong.
🙁
August 20, 2008 at 7:59 am
Now that wasn't so bad, was it?
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Buy the ticket, take the ride. -- Hunter S. Thompson
August 20, 2008 at 8:08 am
Steve, too bad about the kids following you! I still feel most people are honest and would do what they can to help.
Your story reminds me of the time my family was rushing to go to a family gathering. We were running late, because I was still throwing together the food we needed to bring, and my husband was frustrated with me. As he was getting the kids into the station wagon (yeah, a few years ago!), I put the things we needed into the back of the car.
As we were driving down the street, a woman driving behind us pulled up next to us, honked her horn and pointed at the back of the car. We pulled over, and discovered that I had left my car keys in the lock for the back window.
In the mean time, a cop sitting on the next block pulled the woman over for speeding! We pulled into the parking lot where she had stopped to try to explain the situation, which the cop DID NOT APPRECIATE! He told us in no uncertain terms to back away and leave! I felt so bad! I sure hope that cop let the woman off.
August 20, 2008 at 8:43 am
I lost my wallet at a movie theater once, but they were long closed when I noticed it so I couldn't call until the next day. It was found a few days later, either an employee took it or they're really bad about cleaning up. I had already canceled all the cards. I also used to keep my gas cards in my car, then someone smashed my window to steal the remote control head of my ham radio and took the cards along with some other stuff, they charged some gas but the companies canceled the charges. The thing that really ticked me off was that they didn't steal the radio, an Alinco dual-band FM transceiver, just the control head and microphone. Absolutely worthless to anyone without the radio, and it rendered the radio worthless because it hadn't been made in a few years and I could no longer get a replacement head! (the head is the frequency display, volume control, microphone connector, etc.)
The theft of the CLEAR laptop has me bothered. First, it was stolen from behind locked doors in a secure area of the airport. Then it was found in the same room, still behind locked doors, in a different part of the room. I have a hard time believing that it was misplaced, they should have torn that room apart to prove that it wasn't there. Then you have the fact that it was not encrypted. The data on the server is encrypted, according to what I've read, the laptop was not. And finally, did they physically examine the laptop to ensure that it wasn't disassembled and the drive cloned? How do they know that data wasn't accessed?
I'm not in the CLEAR program, but if they can't manage their security better than that, I don't know that I want to be!
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[font="Arial"]Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it. --Samuel Johnson[/font]
August 20, 2008 at 10:29 am
Carla Wilson (8/20/2008)
Steve, too bad about the kids following you! I still feel most people are honest and would do what they can to help.
I have had both good and bad similar experiences. On the good side, when I was on vacation in Great Britain, walking around the grounds of Blenheim Palace, I set my purse down to take a picture and walked away without thinking. By the time I realized that it was missing, it was no longer on the path where I had set it. I didn't have much hope, but on the off-chance I checked at the Lost and Found desk. Once we got around the language difficulties (British security: "No purses were turned in." Me: "Well if anyone turns in a bag about this big (gesturing).." British security: "Oh, you mean a handbag!"), I got my purse (sorry, handbag) back, and nothing had been touched, not even the cash.
On the bad side, two years ago I was sitting in a restaurant in a casino in Las Vegas, and when I went to pay my check my wallet (purse in British) was missing. Security took down the report, and I was able to charge my bill to my room on the card I had used for that, then we cancelled the cards. Fortunately I had only a couple of credit cards and an ATM card in it, but it also had my return ticket in it. I was able to get a replacement ticket, but then had to go through the hassle and expense of getting a replacement driver's license.
One thing I didn't expect, was that I had also carried information about the Credit Union I used, with the account number. About three months after my wallet was stolen, someone went into a branch of the Credit Union that I never use and tried to withdraw cash from my account. Again, fortunate for me, my CU brings up a copy of the photo ID used to open the account, so they could immediately tell the person trying to withdraw cash was not me. (The perp got suspicious when things took too long and got away.)
I didn't even know they had that security procedure. But that meant I had to go through the hassle of opening up a new CU account, changing all the automatic deductions I had being tied to the old CU account, and then closing the old CU account. While this was going on I had to go through extra security at the CU every time I needed to take money out of the old account. It took me more than six months to get everything changed, and I inadvertently incurred some bank fees when I accidentally used the old account, which didn't have enough money any more, so the whole process ended up costing me about $100, even though the perp didn't get anything.
What a mess!
August 20, 2008 at 10:36 am
jpowers (8/20/2008)
... About three months after my wallet was stolen, someone went into a branch of the Credit Union that I never use and tried to withdraw cash from my account. Again, fortunate for me, my CU brings up a copy of the photo ID used to open the account, so they could immediately tell the person trying to withdraw cash was not me. (The perp got suspicious when things took too long and got away.) ...
My former bank did that (former because I no longer live in that town and their online access sucks big time). I thought it was a great thing, taking a digital picture and pulling it up every time the account is accessed. Wonderful security measure! I wish all banks did that, and it's pretty stupid that it doesn't. It would reduce huge amounts of fraud, but the banks don't care as much about fraud as they claim to, they only care about the fraud that is reported that they have to pay out on.
I carry a Palm Pilot, and I use a program called CryptoPad which uses one-way Blowfish encryption to secure the contents. All of my banking information, along with LOTS of other stuff, is locked in there. I'd be screwed if I lost my Palm Pilot as I'd have to buy another one and do a restore to get the information, but the info would be secure.
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[font="Arial"]Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it. --Samuel Johnson[/font]
August 20, 2008 at 10:36 am
Wayne West (8/20/2008)
I also used to keep my gas cards in my car, then someone smashed my window to steal the remote control head of my ham radio and took the cards along with some other stuff, they charged some gas but the companies canceled the charges. The thing that really ticked me off was that they didn't steal the radio, an Alinco dual-band FM transceiver, just the control head and microphone. Absolutely worthless to anyone without the radio, and it rendered the radio worthless because it hadn't been made in a few years and I could no longer get a replacement head! (the head is the frequency display, volume control, microphone connector, etc.)
I feel your pain. Just before I was going on vacation to Hawaii my car was stolen out of the company parking lot. It wasn't resolved before I left, so the whole two weeks was marred by worrying about whether the car would be found. (This was before Lojack.)
When I got back it still hadn't been located, so the insurance company allowed me a rental car for another two weeks. Still no car. I gave up and took the insurance settlement and leased a new car-- of course, the settlement was not enough to pay for a new or even reasonably new car.
About two weeks more pass, and they found my car! Apparently it had been parked behind a defunct supermarket the whole time, and a neighbor had finally called the police. The only thing taken was the radio. I was able to retrieve a few personal possessions, but I was "stuck" with the new car, since I had just begun the lease. I would have been happy to have the original car, but I couldn't afford to repay the insurance settlement and I would still have had lease payments.
August 20, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Congratulations to all of you who choose to error on the side of caution. It is wise and saved you from more than you know.
Good Job!
Not all gray hairs are Dinosaurs!
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