Fidelity terminates employee; buries bad news

Fidelity National Information Services has disclosed an embarrassing instance of data theft by an employee of its Certegy payments processing subsidiary.

The misappropriated information included names, addresses, and telephone numbers as well as, in many cases, dates of birth and bank account or credit card information. Approximately 2.3 million records are believed to be at issue, with 2.2 million containing bank account information and 99,000 containing credit card information.

In a paragrpah bearing the subhead 'Employee Betrayal', Fidelity reassures us that the employee in question has been 'terminated' (which seems a bit draconian) and that the investigation into the thefts is still ongoing.

Why did Fidelity choose to disclose this piece of bad news today?

Nothing to do with the forthcoming Independence Day celebrations in the US, I'm sure.