MONTANA COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM SECURITY COMPANY Montana's News Station, Fair. Accurate. To the Point. -Security company victim of computer theft:

Security company victim of computer theft

May 18, 2007 04:38 PM

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A global security firm has fallen victim to a security breach of its own and the incident is raising concerns of potential identity theft among current and former employees.

The company, Securitas Security Services, guards at least one medical facility and an oil refinery in Billings, Montana.

Securitas also guards other critical infrastructure across the U.S. including some nuclear power plants.

Detective Matt Dunn of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department told a Billings, Montana CBS station, KTVQ, that five laptops and one desktop computer were stolen from Securitas' operating center in Westlake Village, California.

The crime occurred sometime during the night of April 26^th, 2007 and the morning of April 27^th and since the crime is still an ongoing investigation, Detective Dunn could not say whether a surveillance tape recorded the crime in progress, but he says the computers have not yet been recovered and no suspects are in custody.

Detectives are still awaiting fingerprint results from the lab and Dunn says there were signs of a forced entry.

In a letter to current and former employees Securitas says the computers stolen from its operating center contained personal information about current and former employees.

That letter read: "This information is believed to include the following: names, addresses, and social security numbers. It has not been determined that any of the information has been misused."

Former Securitas employee Elbert Denniston of Billings, Montana says he's concerned about the breach.

"I don't know what to think at first- I mean it scared the crap out of me because you know my identity was possibly stolen. I don't know what to think and when I try to contact people nobody knows nothing, some friends have got letters, some haven't".

In the letter dated May 4, 2007, Securitas is urging employees to immediately place a fraud alert on their credit file.

According to the company's web site Securitas employs 200,000 people with annual sales of approximately $6 billion. Phone calls to Securitas offices in Chicago and California were not returned.

Detective Dunn says the investigation is on-going and adds there is no reason to believe they were stolen for the purpose of obtaining file information from the computers".

Employees with questions or concerns can call Securitas USA toll-free at 1-800-873-8626.

- Reported by Aaron Flint in Billings