Struggling to format an Excel document correctly?
We suggest you think twice before searching outside your company for help.
Boeing made the news this week after it revealed an employee inadvertently leaked information about 36,000 of his coworkers to his spouse, who does not work at the company.
Seeking help with a formatting issue, the gentleman sent a company spreadsheet to his wife.
The file contained sensitive, personally identifiable information like places of birth, employee ID numbers and even Social Security numbers and dates of birth, which were included in “hidden columns” within the file. He apparently didn’t realize there was sensitive information included because it was hidden.
News about the incident broke after Boeing’s Deputy Chief Privacy Officer, Marie Olson, informed the Washington State Attorney General, Bob Ferguson. Here’s a copy of the letter.
“We have taken steps to ensure that any copies of the spreadsheet have been destroyed, including a forensic examination of both the Boeing employee’s computer and the spouse’s computer to confirm that any copies of the spreadsheet have been deleted. Both the employee and his spouse have confirmed to us that they have not distributed or used any of the information,” according to the letter from Olson.
Currently 47 states require companies to disclose a breach.
News of the breach was covered in this post on ThreatPost.net.
“Boeing didn’t immediately return a request for comment on Monday afternoon but according to a separate letter it sent customers earlier this month, it plans to require additional training around how to adequately handle personal information in wake of the breach. The company says it may implement additional controls around sensitive data in the near future, although it’s unclear what those controls might be,” according to the post.
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