FBI reports laptops missing

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/0716/web-fbi-07-18-01.asp

[Commentary: Hello? Why is it so easy to lose a laptop, or worse yet a
firearm? I just got back from Las Vegas and again as I have I been
quoted in the past in regards to the British losing their laptops: 
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,43088,00.html 

"When I travel with a laptop I watch it better than some of my fellow
travelers watch their children. And my laptop isn't packed with
national defense secrets." 

Same deal with this trip, not that my laptop is the laptop high on my
wishlist, but a lowly IBM Thinkpad 560x. While I am at it, how does
one especially the FBI lose 450+ firearms?

There is about only one instance I can think of...

http://us.imdb.com/Quotes?0095963

Cat Manzetti:  You leave your guns with those guys over there.
Art Ridzik:    No way. A Chicago cop never relinquishes his weapon. 
          
[The gang all point their guns at him.] 

Here you go.


Something to think about. - WK]



BY Christopher J. Dorobek 
July 18, 2001 

Hundreds of FBI laptop computers, including at least one containing
classified information, have been lost or stolen over the past decade,
Justice Department officials said Tuesday.

Acting FBI Director Tom Pickard informed Attorney General John
Ashcroft July 17 that 184 laptop computers were missing and that at
least 13 of them are believed to have been stolen.

The word comes as the Senate Judiciary Committee today is scheduled to
hold the second in a series of hearings on management problems at the
FBI.

The bureau has been plagued by a series of woes over recent years,
including the loss of thousands of documents in connection with the
trial of convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Officials
blamed the mishandling of those documents on computer problems.

In addition to the laptop computers, nearly 450 firearms are missing.

In response, Ashcroft has asked the Justice Departments inspector
general to conduct an inventory of laptops and other items. The FBI
alone has about 13,000 laptop computers, Justice Department officials
said.

Earlier this year, the Justice Department IG reported that the
Immigration and Naturalization Service could not account for weapons.

Laptop computers have also been lost or stolen at the departments of
State and Energy.




ISN is hosted by SecurityFocus.com
---
To unsubscribe email isn-unsubscribe () SecurityFocus com.