"Clear" Laptop Found, In the Same Locked Office

jafo alerts us to an SFGate story reporting that the lost "Clear" Program laptop has turned up in the same office from which it was reported missing, but not in its previous location. "A preliminary investigation shows that the information was not compromised... The computer held names, addresses and birthdates for people applying to the program, as well as driver's license, passport and green card information. But, she said, the computer contained no Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, fingerprints, facial images or other biometric information... The information was encrypted on the server, but not on the laptop, although it should have been... However, it was protected by two levels of passwords." Reader jafo adds, "Pardon me if I have little confidence that an organization that loses a sensitive laptop for 9 days is able to tell if it was compromised."

Comments

Re:No way did it just turn up

[xanadu-xtroot.com]

office is always locked

Ya know, that one got me too. I don't know about anyone else here, but the offices I've worked in all have drop ceilings. Ya know, the wall ends at the ceiling tiles? The ones, you can easily climb over...

Amazingly, not everyone uses Windows....

[Anonymous Coward]

Put Knoppix, Puppy, or any of the other myriad live linux distros in the CD drive, turn the power on, and presto. You can now clone the hard drive (via USB if you don't want to open the case) with ease. Passwords? Who needs passwords? If the disk wasn't encrypted, all your data belong to us.

I don't see how anyone would have "evidence" that this was/wasn't done.

Hey, guess what? There's a difference between "we can't prove the data was accessed" and "we can prove the data wasn't accessed". Only one of these would matter. Nope, not that one...

Re:Two Levels of Passwords?

[pluther]

Man, the "unsend" feature is my favorite part of Outlook.

Unfortunately, it only works right if everyone you sent the email to is also using outlook. Otherwise, you just get a second message saying the sender wants to recall the first.