The Kitsap Sun has a short story on a Boeing laptop mishap. According to the story, an employee working for Boeing has reported the theft of a laptop from her garage. There is no mention on whether full disk encryption like AlertBoot was used to secure the contents of the laptop, which did contain sensitive information. It hasn't been specified what type of sensitive information, though: are we talking about payroll data that contained SSNs and bank account numbers, the latest plane designs, indiscrete photographs, or what?
The Kitsap Sun has a short story on a Boeing laptop mishap. According to the story, an employee working for Boeing has reported the theft of a laptop from her garage. There is no mention on whether full disk encryption like AlertBoot was used to secure the contents of the laptop, which did contain sensitive information.
It hasn't been specified what type of sensitive information, though: are we talking about payroll data that contained SSNs and bank account numbers, the latest plane designs, indiscrete photographs, or what?
The story has some odd twists. To begin with, the laptop was stored in the employee's garage. That's an odd location for storing a laptop computer with sensitive data. I must congratulate her for taking out the laptop from the car (if the car gets stolen, so does the laptop--that's some good, forward thinking). But why not take the laptop with her into the house? Keeping it in the garage...to me, that's just plain weird. Also weird? Not locking the garage door. There was a dog entrance big enough for people to crawl through, though, so it may have been a moot point to lock the door. Also, the employee said her dogs were going crazy on the night of the robbery but "she didn’t think much of their actions" because she couldn't see anything. Hmph. Either her garage is made of glass or she has x-ray vision; otherwise, that's a somewhat poor excuse. There were plenty of things this person could have done to (possibly) prevent the theft from happening, but didn't. In her defense, she did say she was hopped up on cold medication. I can commiserate. Once in college, I couldn't find Dayquil, so I took some Nyquil before going to class because "it may cause drowsiness"--meaning there was a chance it may not cause drowsiness. Chances were pretty slim, though. I fell asleep in class. The professor of the class? My advisor. Good times. The difference between me and the above employee, though, is that I was the sole victim of my actions. (In my defense, I had taken plenty of Nyquil before, and in all instances it had led to restless, tossing-and-turning nights. So much for past experience.)
The story has some odd twists. To begin with, the laptop was stored in the employee's garage. That's an odd location for storing a laptop computer with sensitive data. I must congratulate her for taking out the laptop from the car (if the car gets stolen, so does the laptop--that's some good, forward thinking).
But why not take the laptop with her into the house? Keeping it in the garage...to me, that's just plain weird. Also weird? Not locking the garage door. There was a dog entrance big enough for people to crawl through, though, so it may have been a moot point to lock the door.
Also, the employee said her dogs were going crazy on the night of the robbery but "she didn’t think much of their actions" because she couldn't see anything. Hmph. Either her garage is made of glass or she has x-ray vision; otherwise, that's a somewhat poor excuse.
There were plenty of things this person could have done to (possibly) prevent the theft from happening, but didn't. In her defense, she did say she was hopped up on cold medication. I can commiserate.
Once in college, I couldn't find Dayquil, so I took some Nyquil before going to class because "it may cause drowsiness"--meaning there was a chance it may not cause drowsiness. Chances were pretty slim, though. I fell asleep in class. The professor of the class? My advisor. Good times.
The difference between me and the above employee, though, is that I was the sole victim of my actions. (In my defense, I had taken plenty of Nyquil before, and in all instances it had led to restless, tossing-and-turning nights. So much for past experience.)
This is not the first time Boeing has experienced a data breach due to the loss of a laptop. They had a breach back in 2006 when an unencrypted laptop was stolen from an employee's car, affecting over 380,000 employees and retirees. And, in 2005 another laptop was stolen, leading to the breach of 160,000 employees and retirees. If some type of data security software had been used to protect the contents of the laptop, such as drive encryption, the consequences of the laptop's loss could have been avoided. Was it? I don't know. But I hope it was--if only for Boeing employees' sake.
This is not the first time Boeing has experienced a data breach due to the loss of a laptop. They had a breach back in 2006 when an unencrypted laptop was stolen from an employee's car, affecting over 380,000 employees and retirees.
And, in 2005 another laptop was stolen, leading to the breach of 160,000 employees and retirees.
If some type of data security software had been used to protect the contents of the laptop, such as drive encryption, the consequences of the laptop's loss could have been avoided.
Was it? I don't know. But I hope it was--if only for Boeing employees' sake.
Related Articles and Sites:http://www.databreaches.net/?p=7789http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2009/oct/11/laptop-containing-sensitive-info-stolen-from/http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-28946237_ITM