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I would think that publishing this story (although a responsibility) may make things worse. Now the thief knows what he has is valuable.

• save_ferris 7y ago
  This is only true if A) the thief knows that the vehicle they looted belonged to an FB employee (which is possible) and B) they didn’t already inspect the contents of the hard drives themselves and C) they read this article and did the math. Seeing as this theft occurred weeks ago, it’s hard to see this story compromising any kind of security. It’s foolish to assume that this announcement somehow makes things worse when an unencrypted hard drive walked off the premises and was stolen.
• bredren 7y ago
  This was probably in the bay. Which is one of the worst car break in spots in the country. Thieves dump anything they can not sell immediately. If it was drives, they are in a dumpster or a dump. If it is a laptop, the data can only be accessed now if you pull the drive, or boot it to some kind of guest/safe mode. I'd guess whoever gets this won't know what they have and will wipe it. That said, if someone figured out this was what it is, the data is probably worth what, millions of dollars? Is there a way the company could create a reward for this? Who would buy this kind of data, or who would pay to have it leaked? Who is it most useful to if held in secret? The most damaging would probably be if it fell into the hands of The Intercept or Wikileaks, who could drip it out.
  • pixl97 7y ago
    Hard to say where the data could end up. If someone pulled the drive and kept it, it could sit around for years doing nothing. It if it immediately got to a black hat it could be sold off on the darknet. Probably not for millions though.