A year's worth of job hunters to Gap stores (including Banana Republic, Old Navy and the Outlet) in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico have a new risk to their identities and financial security. A thief stole a laptop containing unencrypted personal information related to online and telephone job applications from a third-party vendor who handles the applications for the company. And how many people applied for those jobs? 800,000!! If you or one of your kids is among this group, make sure you monitor your/their credit activity like a hawk. What I find so painful is there are sure to be very young kids in that group, kids who haven't even applied for their first credit cards. It would be so devastating to have someone steal or damage your credit, before you even get a chance to overspend on your first Visa card.
Don't forget to order your FREE annual credit report at http://www.annualcreditreport.com/. Here's more on the story: http://www.kcbs.com/Retail-Giant-Reports-Potential-Security-Breach/1019256