A rash of news items has brought the laptop security issue to widespread public attention:
- In October 2002 an Air Force sergeant was charged with the theft of two laptop computers taken from the military command center that oversees U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The laptops were missing for nearly two weeks before they were recovered, but according to military sources, no sensitive information was taken (4).
- In a report released in August 2002, five agencies under Justice Department jurisdiction reported 400 missing laptop computers. The classification level of 218 of the missing laptops was unknown, and the report noted, “It is possible that the missing laptop computers would have been used to process and store national security or sensitive law enforcement information that, if divulged, could harm the public (5).”
- In June 2002 a laptop computer and stamps used to grant access to the United States were stolen from an Immigration and Naturalization Service office (6).
- In March 2002 a laptop computer belonging to the Auditor General of Nova Scotia was stolen from his home, raising concerns about a security breach affecting auditing officesacross Canada (7).
- In July 2001 the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that 184 laptops had been lost or stolen. At least one and possibly as many as four contained classified information (8).
- In April 2001 the British Defense Ministry reported 205 laptops missing since 1997, most of which contained classified material (9).
- In September 2000 three laptop computers and a handheld device were stolen from a Democratic National Committee office (10).
- Also in September 2000, the laptop of Qualcomm’s CEO, Irwin Jacobs, was stolen from a conference room in which he had just given a presentation. Jacobs told participants that the computer contained proprietary information that could be valuable to foreign governments (11).
- In three separate incidents between March and May 2000, British intelligence and military agents lost laptops that were reported to contain state secrets. In the first, an intelligence officer for MI6 mislaid a laptop, which was recovered by police two weeks later. In the second, a laptop containing classified material on Northern Ireland was stolen from an MI5 security officer. In the third, a naval officer’s laptop, containing details on a fighter plane being jointly developed by Britain and the United States, was stolen and later recovered by a British tabloid (12, 13).
- In February 2000 a laptop computer with “highly classified” information disappeared from
the U.S. State Department (14). The laptop was not password protected and the data on it were not encrypted. It was reported to contain several thousand pages of highly classified documents. In May 2000 two more laptops were reported missing from the U.S. State Department (15).
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