Around 600,000 current and former employees could be affected by
the privacy breach, according to reports, although Time Warner has
confirmed that the tapes did not include the personal data of its
customers.
The media and entertainment giant is notifying those individuals
whose information may have been on the missing tapes, and is
advising them on how best to protect themselves in the event that
the data has been stolen.
"We take the security of our employees' personal information
extremely seriously and we deeply regret that this incident
occurred," said Larry Cockell, Time Warner's Senior Vice President
and Chief Security Officer.
"While we have no evidence to suggest the information on the
tapes has been accessed or misused, we are providing current and
former employees with resources to monitor their credit reports
while our investigation continues. We are working closely and
aggressively with law enforcement and the outside data storage firm
to get to the bottom of this matter," he added.
The loss is the latest in a string of high profile privacy
breaches to hit the headlines recently, including the disappearance
of backup tapes containing the credit card information of 1.2
million federal workers by Bank of America, the theft of around
310,000 customers' personal information at a subsidiary of data
broker LexisNexis, and the reported loss of transaction data
belonging to around 180,000 customers of fashion house Polo Ralph
Lauren.
