Lone Star Steakhouse Pays Fine

     In March, Lone Star Steakhouse in Wichita, Kansas was accused of throwing away thousands of

 employee records with sensitive information in an open trash container in an alley way. Attorney General

 Derek Schmidt announced Tuesday that the management corporation for Lone Star Steakhouse, known as

 LS Management Inc., will have to pay $200,000 to the state and take steps to protect employee privacy in

 the future. Around March 21, the attorney generals office alleged that Lone Star Steakhouse threw

 thousands of employee files containing confidential employee records into open trash containers in an alley in

 Wichita, and the improper disposal violated state and federal privacy laws.

     Many of the files contained employee records, such as credit reports, Social Security numbers,

 addresses, phone numbers and other personal identifying information. The trash cans were left unsecured or

 were picked up overnight.

     “Companies that collect sensitive personal information have a legal duty to keep that information secure

 and to dispose of it properly,” Schmidt said. “Dumping records in an open Dumpster in an alley does not

 satisfy that legal duty.” Schmidt said that the settlement will help protect employees in the future from this

 same act of misconduct from happening again. The $200,000 was the largest ever in the state of Kansas for

 a privacy law violation.

     I think that the $200,000 fine was a good message  to send to employers to prevent future negligent acts

 like this in the future. I hope and expect that my private record are in safe  hands and are secure and

 potential fraudsters will not find any of my personal information to steal from me.

     Companies need to start implementing better practices of keeping employee records safe and secure.

 Every company should shred important employee files and other documents as well. Investing in shredding

 machines is an invaluable procedure every company should do.

     This story relates to accounting because of what potential fraudsters can do with a person's personal

 information. They can get social security numbers, credit reports, addresses and phone numbers and steal

 with that information. Businesses now take the proper procedures to put in place to prevent these types of

 crimes from happening in the future. Some businesses or corporations even hire former fraudsters to help

 them implement certain procedures to prevent such crimes. These former fraudsters know what it takes to

 steal with employees personal information and they provide insight and ideas from the mind of an actual

 criminal.