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Lost TSA Data Laptop Found In Its Office
David Utter
Staff Writer
2008-08-06
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A laptop containing details on 33,000 people allowed to bypass security checkpoints at airports turned up after being missing for more than a week.
 | | Lost TSA Data Laptop Found In Its Office |  |
Despite the reappearance of the missing laptop over a week after it apparently vanished from San Francisco International Airport, the Transportation Security Administration still plans to keep new applicants from joining the Clear program.
The San Francisco Chronicle said the missing machine contained names and addresses, but not Social Security or credit card numbers, on travelers enrolled in Clear. A company called Verified Identity owns the laptop and operates the Clear program under contract with TSA.
However, it seems the laptop never should have contained the information it has in the first place. Someone downloaded traveler details from a separate server onto the laptop, which according to early reports had not been compromised.
That could have happened as the data was not encrypted per TSA requirements. A couple of passwords protected the contents of the now-returned laptop, but Verified Identity won't be signing up any new travelers until TSA wraps up an investigation and a process audit of the company.
The movement of data from a server to a laptop, especially information as sensitive as this, never should have been allowed to go unnoticed in the first place, as evidently happened with Verified Identity.
We expect our inbox to be besieged with companies stating how they can provide services to detect this kind of data access. We've mildly considered forwarding all those pitches along to Verified Identity.
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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