Time Warner Employee Data May Have Been Stolen

I sure hope you are not now, nor have ever been an employee of Time Warner. Why? Because personal information for 600,000 current and former Time Warner employees has been lost, potentially setting the stage for one of the largest cases yet of identity theft.

Time Warner said the mishap occurred on March 22, when data storage company Iron Mountain was transporting its backup tapes to a storage facility away from its offices. The company lost the tapes while in transit. The tapes were discovered missing on the same day they were picked up, and when they could not rule out foul play, they contacted the U.S. Secret Service to investigate.

Time Warner waited for more than a month before notifying current and past employees that their personal information may have been compromised. The reason for the delay was that they didn't want to comprimise the investigation by going public. The media giant has set up an 800 number to answer past and current employees' questions and provide free credit monitoring for a year. A few days ago, the company began the process of encrypting its data.

The Time Warner case is just the latest in a string of data theft cases to rock corporate America, from Bank of America to educational institutions such as the University of California at Berkeley.