The Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS) reported that a laptop was stolen from one of its employees. The laptop was in a car and the employee lost it as well as several other items that were in the car at the time.

The theft highlights the significance of data risk that government organizations and businesses face today.

Yesterday I wrote about the real costs of lost laptops as revealed in a study by the Ponemon Institute. The average cost to a business of a lost laptop, the study found, was $49,246, and company chairman and founder Larry Ponemon said that number was likely low.

The laptop contained the personal data of people receiving government assistance, specifically those enrolled in the following programs: Medicaid, Child Care assistance, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), Aid to the Aged, Blind and Disabled and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or Food Stamps).

[Continue reading this blog post at Software's Sublimation by Alex Goldman]