Census Bureau Loses Hundreds of Laptops

Billosaur writes "According to CNN, The U.S. Commerce Department has lost 1,137 laptop computers since 2001, most of them assigned to the Census Bureau. According to Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez, 'All of the equipment that was lost or stolen contained protections to prevent a breach of personal information.' This comes after the fiasco involving the Veteran's Affairs Department's loss and eventual recovery of a laptop containing 26.5 million veteran and active-duty records." Given the scope of the operation, are these losses to be expected or is this an example of poor government security standards?

Comments

Re:Heh.

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

Seriously, I'm sure the vast majority were just census takers who never returned them, and, hey, nobody ever came and got it!

1137out of a total of how many?

[winkydink]

5% shrinkage per year is considered doing a good job when it comes to managing laptop losses.

Re:No consequences means no responsibility.

[boristdog]

I worked for the federal govt for 6 years. The parent post is very true.

You are encouraged to toe the line, come in on time, leave on time...and not much else. If you do a good job you are "rewarded" by being kept in that position, because they need someone who can do the work. If you screw up, the only way they can get rid of you is by promotion.

Still, the efforts of the 20-25% who know what they are doing keeps the government working. Most of them stay for the security and benefits. I still have friends there who are good workers, but too afraid to face the real world (i.e. Private Sector) and are cranking away to that retirement and pension. I'm only 42 and I could be three years from retirement right now if I hadn't quit 16 years ago. But it would be only at half pay, which would be less than 1/4 of what I make now.

So give thanks to the timid hard workers who actually make the government work. The rest of us will enjoy our risks and rewards.

Re:No consequences means no responsibility.

[Gilmoure]

Bingo! All I want to do is sit in my cube, take my calls, keep up with email and alerts and then go home. I don't want to escort the uncleared so they can sit on their ass 6 times a day and suck on a cig, I don't want to wander half-way across campus to hit the good snack machine or over priced grill and I sure as hell don't want some mouth breather hanging around my cube talking about millionaires playing with a ball. So yeah, I'm the unpleasant asshole that no one likes, who dresses weird (messy long hair, scraggly beard, Ornery Boy shirt (in a button down only shirt office)) and always beat everyone else's stats by 30%-50% every month. Feh.