COME ON! IBM? Losing a tape?

IBM lost a tape containing employee's personal information by literally dropping it off the back of a truck.

According to this ComputerWorld story , IBM lost a tape by dropping it off the back of a truck.  They say they "know right where they lost it," but they looked there and didn't find it.  They have no evidence of anyone getting it or tampering with it.  They SAY that you couldn't read the tape on a PC.

Really?  What about Hercules that simulates a mainframe on a PC? 

So not only was IBM transporting their employee's personal information on unencrypted tapes, they were transporting them via a truck that allows tapes to fall out?  What's that about?

Come on, people, can't we all review all of the ways that we're moving tapes around and look for holes like this before the next incident? 

 

Written by W. Curtis Preston (@wcpreston), four-time O'Reilly author, and host of The Backup Wrap-up podcast. I am now the Technology Evangelist at Sullivan Strickler, which helps companies manage their legacy data