Bermuda Triangle Effect on laptop computers at US Department of Commerce

22/09/2006 Written by Roberto Preatoni (SyS64738)

Over 1100 laptop computers got lost in the offices of the U.S. Department of Commerce since 2001, including nearly 250 from the census Bureau  containing names and social security numbers, federal officials said yesterday.

As the Washington Post reported,  last summer the House Committee on Government Reform asked 17 federal departments to file up in details any loss of computers containing sensitive information, and the result of such an inventory reveals a dangerous phenomenon that reminds us those  disappearances in Bermuda Triangle area…

Indeed,  just 10 departments responded to the request and all of them are characterized by the vanishing of huge amounts of data, but according to the director of the committee the losses at Department of Commerce “are by far the most egregious”.

He added then, that remaining seven departments which didn't provide the Congress an inventory of stolen or lost laptops could have to handle similar security problems.

 6200 households’ data could have been compromised, according to last  valuation considering that the number of stolen laptops is increasing day bay day as investigations go ahead.

 “We don't know exactly how many computers were lost or whether personal information was compromised," said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), who chairs the House Government Reform Committee and attended the briefing.
"The secretary has assured me that getting that information is priority number one, and I'm confident he'll get his arms around the problem."  

The Department of Commerce’s Security Staff stated that 1,137 laptops had been stolen, lost or otherwise vanished since 2001, mostly from the Census Bureau and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Of these, 249 contained personally identifiable information, nearly all from the Census Bureau. All were password-protected, a low-level safeguard. Only 107 of the computers were fully encrypted. 

In spite of the amount of stolen laptops, it seems that the vulnerability for data misuse is low, but considering that this last statement was released by Commerce Secretary –who, according to unofficial sources,  spent a whole meeting with other members of the congress trying to minimize what have happened- we can do without feeling a little be sympathetic with  people whose data were on the stolen laptops.