Commerce Department Announces Information From Reviews of Missing Department Laptops and Potential Breaches of Personal Identity Data
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce

The Department of Commerce today announced information from its recent Department-wide reviews of missing, lost or stolen laptops and potential breaches of personal identity data. The Department continues its review and is not aware of any data being improperly accessed or used. The information gathered from the reviews indicates that the Census Bureau had the disproportionate share of missing equipment and data. The reviews were in response to broad, government-wide Congressional and public inquiries.

Based on the review in response to the public inquiry, the Department determined that within its 15 operating units for the years 2001 to the present, out of over 30,000 laptops within the Department’s inventory over that time period, 1,137 were either lost, stolen or missing. Of these laptops, 249 contained personally identifiable information (PII), although access passwords, complex database software, systemic safeguards and/or encryption technology significantly limit the potential for misuse of data on the laptops.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 22nd, 2006 at 1:10 pm and is filed under Government and politics, Privacy, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.