The Human Factor
Missing Computer Data...Identify theft is a crime where a criminal steals someone else's personal information and uses it to run up credit card bills or access that person's financial records. A hard drive was stolen in Canada, something that all the technical knowledge in the world cannot prevent. As long as humans are handling computer hardware, it cannot be guaranteed that it will not fall into the wrong hands.
If the hard drive has been stolen, the identity thief would have to piece things together and decode files. That's very difficult, but not impossible. If this is a case of identity theft, it is the biggest case of such a crime in Canada. The hard drive is also believed to contain medical billing records, government pension statements and financial information from the provincial energy and telephone utilities.
This case is similar to one in Las Vegas last year and another case where a hospital sold a computer still containing sensitive data.
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