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The Khaki Bandit Strikes At IT - 130 Stolen Laptops

Posted by Zonk on from the not-my-portable-device dept.

destinyland writes "'The khaki bandit' posed as an office worker at several corporations and successfully stole over 130 laptops which he later sold on eBay. The ease of theft from the corporate offices (including FedEx and Burger King) shows just how bad corporate security can be. In some cases, the career thief just walked into the office behind an employee with a security badge. Two million laptops were stolen just in 2004, and of those 97 percent were never recovered. Ultimately it was the corporate headquarters of Outback Steakhouse who caught the thief with a bugged laptop that notified them when he re-connected it to the internet."

4 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. Look at the way many people treat their laptops by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Considering the cavalier way many people treat laptops and projectors, I'm not surprised. No one would think of leaving $3000-$4000 in cash just laying around in the open. But I've seen plenty of people where I work leave brand new laptops and projectors sitting out in the open, unattended for long periods.

    In fact, just a couple of weeks ago, one of our directors went on vacation and left his laptop and projector just sitting on the conference room where he had last used it (a large, wide-open conference room used by hundreds of outside people each week). They sat there for several days before anyone noticed.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Look at the way many people treat their laptops by tommeke100 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      people don't care when they don't have to pay for it.
      It's the same at our company. You wouldn't believe the state some of our laptops are after just a couple of months. cracked screens, missing keyboard keys, full of spyware, coffee spilled all over it, ....
      I don't think ppl would treat their laptops that poorly if they had to pay for it.

    2. Re:Look at the way many people treat their laptops by Four_One_Nine · · Score: 5, Funny
      Apparently in most business we trust most people to not steal laptops, projectors, LCD monitors, etc.

      However it seems that NOWHERE in corporate America does any company trust it's employees (at least the male ones) to not steal the paper towels out of the mens room. The dispenser is ALWAYS locked up !

      --
      I did it for Johnny.
  2. Re:And here's how he was caught: by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 5, Funny

    >> how the guy was caught

    It was an Outback Steak-Out.