Computer Theft at Oakland Schools' Offices Place Employees at Risk of Identity Theft

There's nothing quite like coming into the office to find your computer has been stolen. How do I know? It happened to me a few years ago at a former job. Fortunately for the company, my computer was the only one stolen, and it contained no sensitive information like employee records or customer credit card numbers, putting no one at risk of identity theft. Unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be the case with the recent computer theft at the Oakland School District's main office.

Ten desktop computers were stolen from the second-floor Human Resources Department of the Oakland School district. They appear to be the only items stolen from the office. However, that may be more than enough to do some damage to any employees whose records were on those machines. While officials won't comment as to what information specifically was on those machines, they did confirm that there was personal information that was provided to the district when the employees were hired, which makes these employees potential identity theft victims. The employees whose information may have been compromised will be notified of the incident and their risk of identity theft.

If the thieves who took my old office computer were looking to commit identity theft, they would have been disappointed. However, with this Oakland computer theft, identity theft is very much a possibility. Whether the thieves were after the data specifically, the potential is still there, whether they take advantage of the data themselves or sell it to someone else.

Some Copy Machines Remember You

So what do you use your office copy machine for? Obviously, you would say, it’s used for work documents such as company brochures or internal memos. But what else? Occasionally, you and/or your office mates may use it for personal documents, such as income tax returns, photo identification or Social Security documents. Surely, the boss wouldn’t mind that too much. In most offices, this is true, but that’s not the point. Here is some information that may make you change your mind or at least think twice before doing so.

If your office copy machine was manufactured in the past five years, a hard drive is included with the copier that stores a digital copy of every document copied. That way if the original is lost, you can call up the digital version to make another copy. This is a great idea for your office documents, but what about any documents with personal tax or identifying information? Ouch! Let’s hope everyone in the office is trustworthy. Worse yet, what if the company decides to sell the photocopier and get a new one. Ouch again! You don’t know who will have access to this information.

However, Sharp is promoting its new copy machines with options to encrypt these stored copies or virtually shred them so they can’t be recovered. Find out if your company copier offers these features, and if they do, be sure to use them. If not, you may want to think twice about what you copy.