US Department of State Missing Hundreds of Laptops

I love audits, don’t you? What an eye opener they can be. Like, when an audit exposes that the U.S. Department of State has hundreds of employee laptops unaccounted for. The U.S. Department of State. No sensitive data there. Just all US foreign relations.

According to officials, as many as 400 of the unaccounted for laptops belong to the Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program, administered by the Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS), that provides counter-terrorism training and equipment (including laptops) to foreign police, intelligence and security forces. The DS is responsible for securing the US Department of State computer networks and equipment, in addition to protecting foreign diplomats when visiting the US.

So, it would seem there is a flaw in the DS security policy regarding laptops. Currently, DS officials are going around the Washington-area offices to register employee laptops. The laptops are not officially lost until the current searches are completed.

The Inspector General’s audit is still ongoing, but it is clear from this early news that the State Department does not have good records of its inventory.

So, do you consider this to be a data breach at this stage? Or, is it a data breach only when the laptops are officially considered lost?

Via CQ Politics ; Image: click @ morguefile Tags: department of state, us department of state, missing laptops, laptop security, laptop management, it security, government security, terrorism, breach, data breach