Pfizer - Ex-Employee Sues for Data Infringement

A worker out of the 17,000 employees of Pfizer (they had their personal data posted online) has sued the world's greatest maker of drug saying that the data violation has lead to financial loss, identity theft and apprehension of fraud.

The suit, which was filed on June 29, 2007, demands identity pilfering insurance for long-term and a compensation against any damage for the affected workers.

The internal investigation founds that the breach took place when the other half of a sales worker whose job is to analyze such data, used a laptop of the company to download illegal software and uses a file-sharing network. Though the worker no longer works for Pfizer but it is still in the rules of company not to reveal that whether the said worker was dismissed.

As per the company's Website, the authorities came to know in April 2007 that the Social Security numbers and the names, and in certain particular cases, addresses, mobile and residence numbers, and information of bonus, had been displayed on the net around 3 weeks ago, Pfizer reported in its site.

According to the officials of the Pfizer, they did not notify the affected employees till June 1, 2007 and the mailing was pending up till June 6, 2007. Moreover, as per the company's timeline, almost nine weeks passed away in the total elapsed time between the breach and notification.

As per the report of InfoWorld on July 18, 2007, Bernard Nash, Pfizer attorney, said that on April 18, 2007, Pfizer came to know about the incident when a computer consultant informed the company they had seen the information of Pfizer on a peer-to-peer network. However, Nash denied to comment on why they waited till June 1, 2007 to inform the affected people.

According to the reports of CNN money on July 20, 2007, the spokesman of Pfizer, Ray Kernis, said that their company has provided the employees 1 year access (free of cost) to a national credit reporting agency and has arranged that employees will be informed immediately if there is any change in their credit standing.

Related article: Pfizer Suffers Two Close Data Compromises

» SPAMfighter News - 8/1/2007