Missing unencrypted thumb drive impacts 19,000 Colorado workers

Almost 19,000 current and former Colorado state workers may have had personal information compromised after a worker lost an unencrypted thumb drive containing the data.
How many victims? 18,800. 
What type of personal information? Names, addresses and Social Security numbers are among the information.
What happened? A state employee lost the drive containing data on 8,000 current employees and 10,800 former workers while transporting it between work locations.
What was the response? Colorado officials worked quickly to find out what type of information was stored on the drive so they could send out notification letters to all impacted workers. The Office of Information Security is continuing efforts to recover the thumb drive. Procedures and practices are being reviewed and revised to minimize the risk of recurrence.
Details: The drive was discovered to be missing in late November. Employees from multiple state agencies were involved.
Quote: “We have strict policy for the state about encryption,” Tauna Lockhart, a spokesperson with the Governor's Office of Information Technology, said. “That said, this employee did not follow stated protocol and has been disciplined.”
Source: idradar.com, “18,800 Colorado State Workers Wrapped Up In Data Breach,” Dec. 16, 2013

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