A laptop reported missing on July 26th containing personally identifiable information on some 33,000 airport travelers has been found. The unencrypted laptop was found more than a week later in the Transportation Security Administration office from which it had disappeared. The questions on everybody’s mind are, was the laptop ever really missing or was it simply mis-placed, and should we assume that the data on it has been compromised. The data comprises information on applicants to the TSA’s fast-pass security pre-screening program, and includes names, addresses, birth dates, driver’s license, and passport or green card numbers.
A week is more than enough time for someone to copy the relevant data, then wait for an opportune time to return the laptop. Maybe the thieves hope that by returning the laptop, the company would attempt to conceal the fact that the laptop was missing, thereby avoiding the embarrassing admission that it was left unencrypted and in an apparently insecure location. This would mean that the potential victims would never know that their personal data was compromised, thus there would be no impetus to scrutinize their accounts and monitor their credit.
Fortunately, the company has disclosed the fact that the laptop was missing, and is notifying the applicants whose data may have been compromised. This will help mitigate the damage if the data was indeed stolen. This incident is one more in a chain of events over the last few years where unencrypted data on laptops and PDAs has potentially fallen into the hands of identity thieves when the devices were lost or stolen.
Tags:
Data Loss,
TSA,
Unencrypted
Author: Christopher
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