75,000 energy customer details lost on laptop

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 18 Jun 2009 at 12:05

An unencrypted laptop containing account details of 75,000 customers has been stolen from an Irish energy company.

The machine was one of four taken from the offices of Bord Gais Energy in Dublin, and contained the names, addresses and account numbers of the affected customers.

"We have had an aggressive system of encrypting since last July and this computer should have been encrypted before it was given to the staff member; it was a flaw in the system," said managing director Dave Bunworth, speaking to the Irish Times.

Bunworth said that the machine was "not a normal laptop that you could break into that easily", as it was protected with a username and password.

The company has said that it will write to all customers affected tomorrow, and is advising anyone contacted to monitor their bank account for any suspicious transactions. The company has also contacted banks to inform them that customers' details were stolen.