2011 BP — lost laptop with ~13k Deepwater Horizon claimant spreadsheet (unencrypted data)
Data compromised
Claims-tracker PII including government identifiers for pre-GCCF filers
Technical writeup
BP told media that an employee lost a password-protected laptop during March 2011 travel that held an unencrypted spreadsheet of roughly 13,000 Gulf spill claimants—names, addresses, phones, DOBs, and Social Security numbers—from the window before the Gulf Coast Claims Facility absorbed processing. The company notified law enforcement, offered credit monitoring, and asserted there was no evidence the device was targeted or the data actually accessed, framing the case as physical asset loss rather than network intrusion.
Root cause
Physical loss of endpoint storing sensitive claims spreadsheet without at-rest encryption