PC Data Security Blog

Not even Google is immune to security threats.

Earlier this month, a major breach was reported when a third-party employee benefits administrator’s office was burglarized and part of the theft included personal employee data. Data breaches happen all the time, but this particular incident raised some eyebrows because it happened to Google.

Turns out the company Google had entrusted with administering benefits to its employees and protecting their personal information is just as vulnerable as everybody else to this type of risk. A company like Google must prove its ability to secure user data on a daily basis, or they won’t have users. So why, then, would they not ensure such security measures are being taken by third-party vendors to secure employee data?

The problem is more common than we’d all like to admit. It can happen to anyone who hands over their employees’ or clients’ personal information to a third-party vendor. And is that vendor to blame when the information is breached? Yes and no. The responsibility is still on the company its employees and clients trusted to secure their data, regardless of where that data travels along the B2B highway.

Bottom line: vendors, contractors, and service providers should be measured not only by the quality/value of their services but by their diligence in maintaining the privacy of the custodial data they’ve taken responsibility for.  When considering a vendor, add a sound security policy to the items you value. You won’t be sorry.

2 Comments »

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1. Wow, this certainly strikes close to home! The confidential personal and financial information (including SSN#s) of all Beachhead Solutions employees was exposed in October of last year – a result of a stolen laptop. How could this happen? We’re a security-conscious company, with diligent employees and (shameless plug) we use Lost Data Destruction to protect PC data. But it wasn’t us that lost our data – it was a Beachhead vendor.

   Shame on us, we’d not carefully considered the safekeeping of our own confidential data when considering our payroll and benefits administrator. You can bet we do now – for ALL VENDORS! Since this episode we’ve fired them (a biggie in this space) and have gone with another. We’ve chosen (another plug) TriNet who provides terrific service AND protects our confidential data. Any chance this is coincidence?

   Comment by Cam Roberson — July 24, 2008 #

2. How coincidental is it that I received a letter from my husband’s company this week that our information was included in the Colt Express Outsourcing theft and that I find out 4 days later that my credit card was fraudulently used in another state? They’re probably not related but it makes me angry that the company didn’t take precautions to protect our information more carefully. The other infuriating thing is that the company was not even a client of Colt at the time of the theft. Why did they still have our data?

   Comment by Kim — July 24, 2008 #

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