OHIO COMPUTER THEFT A GROWING PROBLEM http://www.cleveland.com/politics/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/opinion/114871895512310.xml&coll=2


Grand theft laptop
Computers loaded with sensitive data keep disappearing; how can security continue to be so frustratingly slipshod?

Saturday, May 27, 2006

Aren't laptop computers great?

They're marvelously portable, and they get more powerful every year. There's almost nothing you can do with a big, old desktop computer that you can't do just as easily with a five-pound laptop.

Except maybe hang onto it.

Any kind of computer can be stolen, but it takes less than a second to grab a laptop while its owner is distracted. It's an easy few bucks for the unsophisticated thief, or a gold mine for the more ambitious larcenist. What he wants is the data stored inside.

No one knows yet which kind of thief pinched a laptop containing the Social Security numbers and birth dates of 26.5 million U.S. veterans. Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson took a sunny outlook when he announced the theft on Monday: "It's highly probable that they do not know what they have."

We'll take the other point of view: It's highly probable that they do now.

Identity theft is a serious concern for Americans. Having one's personal data stolen can open the gates to a personal hell of drained bank accounts, bollixed records, ruined credit and every red-tape agony imaginable.

So why do things like the VA laptop theft keep happening over and over and over again?

In this case, a middling VA functionary took the laptop home - in violation of regulations - and his house was burglarized.

In the case of Cleveland State University last year, data on 44,420 people was compromised when someone pinched a laptop from the admissions office.

In the case of Kent State University, not quite three months later, the theft of five laptops from two campus offices put information on more than 100,000 people at risk.

The problems are by no means limited to the public sector. A computer that was being shipped this month from one Wells Fargo Bank facility to another disappeared in transit, along with financial data on a "relatively small percentage" of mortgage customers. It was the fourth computer laden with customer information that Wells Fargo has lost to thievery in the last three years. Not all have been laptops.

Many, many institutions store sensitive personal and financial data on computers. Most work hard to keep the information stored on central servers out of the hands of nefarious hackers. But it seems that many need to do much more on the low-tech end to keep computers themselves from "growing legs."

Sensible security rules, rigorously followed, would put a dent in laptop larceny. Computers containing sensitive information simply cannot be taken home, left in the car or left unattended or unanchored at workstations. The keepers of the keys to Americans' identities ought to be playing much tougher defense.