Another Identity Theft Debacle

The latest in a series of identity theft debacles relates to the loss of a Fidelity Investments laptop that contained personal information on nearly 200,000 HP employees.

The stolen computer belongs to Fidelity Investments, which provides services to HP, a representative for the Palo Alto, Calif., technology giant said Wednesday. The laptop was being used by several Fidelity employees in an off-site location, said Anne Crowley, a spokeswoman for Fidelity, which is based in Boston. The portable PC contains information on 196,000 current and former HP employees, Crowley said. The data includes names, addresses, Social Security numbers, dates of birth and other employment-related information, but not the personal identification numbers required to log on to Fidelity services, she said.

The key question: why is someone walking around with a database that contains 200,000 sensitive records?