On a previous post, I had mentioned that Anheuser‑Busch had declined to reveal details on a data breach where laptops were stolen from the brewer’s headquarters in St. Louis.  At the time, there were mixed reports on whether laptop encryption was used on the laptops.

cbs4.com is reporting that the number of employees affected by the theft numbers nearly 90,000 employees across five states: New Hampshire, Virginia, Missouri, Texas, and Florida.  Florida, with 87,500 people, is the big loser in this case…or it would be, except for this:

“According to the company, all the data was password-protected and encrypted. A spokesperson has also said there has been no evidence that the data was used in any identity theft crime.” [emphasis mine, quote from cbs4.com]

The brewer is still ponying up for one year’s worth of credit monitoring for “affected” employees.  It hardly seems necessary—the computer encryption will prevent any data breaches, unless they had a really weak password.  Well, to each his own, I guess.  I hear beer sales are brisk after multiple years of a downward trend due to the rise of wines and other spirits, so the beer maker is certainly in no need for money…jeez, it is really $1,170,000 per month?! $13 per month for 90,000 people…

Hmph.  I definitely would have alerted the world the laptops were encrypted and left it at that….Incidentally, this is why encryption services like AlertBoot are infinitely cheaper than dealing with the aftermath of a data breach: while a traditional company may have 90,000 employees, chances are the same company has less than 90,000 computers, so if credit monitoring and encryption services cost the same…venture a guess as to what’s cheaper overall?  Plus, this does not take into account the possible economic impact the data breach can have on the employees, which in turn could have a detrimental effect on the productivity of the company.

Related Sites:

http://cbs4.com/

http://cbs4.com/local/busch.anheuser.brewery.2.787651.html