Few people will miss the irony that IT security giant, McAfee, is itself on the receiving end of a serious security incident after an external auditor lost a CD containing information on thousands of current and former McAfee employees.
According to reports, the auditor from Deloitte and Touche left the un-labelled CD in an airline seat pocket two months ago. Although the CD was misplaced on 15th December 2005, McAfee wasn’t notified of the potentially-serious breach until January 11th 2006. McAfee has notified all current and past employees of the incident, but claims there has been no misuse of the lost data so far.
This latest scare further highlights the risks associated with carrying unprotected sensitive information on small removable media devices. While iPods and USB sticks are often singled-out as the main threats, this shows that even the humble CD, left unencrypted and unattended can create a serious security breach - which potentially could cost an organization millions.
