The Boston Water and Sewer Commission recently revealed that it had lost a hard drive which may have contained sensitive customer data.
The drive was apparently lost by a contractor known as Aclara Technologies, which notified BWSC officials soon after discovering it was missing, according to a report from
the commission. The data was being used to update remote meter reading systems.
The information potentially exposed as a result of the lost drive includes customer names, phone numbers, addresses, account numbers and meter numbers, which the BWSC notes was largely available to the public anyway, the report said. The breach did not include any Social Security numbers, financial data or state license or ID information. Further, because of the types of information exposed, the commission believes it is unlikely to be used improperly.
Nonetheless,
data breaches can pose serious problems for consumers and the agencies that suffer them, and
Ondrej Krehel, the chief information security officer for
Identity Theft 911, has a blog about what both parties can do to better protect themselves.
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