We've all heard of the horrible data security breaches that occur when a company fails to update their firewalls or an employee leaves a laptop with massive amounts of data out in the open. A theft of massive amounts of data has occurred again, but this time the company didn't leave the hardware out in the open. The TSA has reported that a laptop containing personal information of over 33,000 air travelers was compromised when it was stolen from a locked office at San Francisco International Airport.
While they at least had the laptop locked up, it employed no security measures, including encryption, to prevent the data from being easily lifted - and as a result, the company behind the "Clear" system has decided that encryption will be used in the future.
At the very least, an effort is being made to contact those who had their data stolen. It still makes you think twice about whether or not you really want to give personal information out to a company.