laptop with Social Security numbers stolen [again]

Washington, DC -- a laptop containing the Social Security numbers and other personal data of 13,000 District of Columbia employees and retirees has been stolen from the home of a ING US financial services employees which administers the District retirement plan, according to officials.

"The company did not notify city employees of the theft until late Friday because it took officials several days to determine what information was stored on the laptop, ING spokeswoman Caroline Campbell said.
The laptop was not password-protected and the data was not encrypted, Campbell said."

backup a second... a laptop containing sensitive data was not password-protected and the data was not encrypted??? [Pausing to take a deep breath] who in this day and age does not know about password protection? I could understand if it was somebody's personal home unit... however... UGH!!!
But wait... it gets even better

"We are concerned that this information was being managed without protection," said Mary Ann Young, spokeswoman for the city's chief financial officer. "

this is not your daughter going out on the date... these are a people's Social Security numbers and personal information.
Why is this stuff on somebody laptop in the first place?
Haven't you heard of secure remote connections? You know, the little key down on the bottom of the corner and Word says "HTTPS" in the address bar type of stuff. Similar to make a purchase online.

" For us, this is very unfortunate," Campbell said. But were moving forward, were very focused and committed to find any other laptops that don't have encryption software and to fix that. This incident revealed a gap. "

FYI, Windows XP comes with file encryption.

"Two other ING laptops containing information on 8,500 Florida hospital workers were stolen in December, but the employees were not notified until this week, said ING spokesman Chuck Eudy. Neither laptop was encrypted, he said. "

read that last paragraph again