Whoops.

(Image is in the Public Domain)

The TSA's CLEAR program where people can spend $100 to be "pre-screened" at airports and bypass security had a security hit recently when a laptop (doesn't this get old) with customer data was stolen.

Well gosh, how could they ever have seen that coming?

Anyway, Schneier covers the story and links to the TSA's response as well as taking a moment to denounce the program again along with most of what the TSA is doing for airport security. Since I've met the privacy officer for the TSA and know he knows what he's doing, the only reason I can come up with for this is that they're not listening to him when he's telling them not to put this kind of data on laptops unencrypted.

Whoops... lost another

(Image is in the Public Domain)

Here we go again.

(Image is in the Public Domain)

Here we go again. At least this time, it's only on the order of a few hundred thousand people.

Note: it's a little sad to have to say that.

(Image is in the Public Domain)

How many years has it been since America's Funniest Home Videos came around? How many videos do you still see of some dad somewhere teaching his kid to swing a bat, but he stands behind him and gets nailed in the crotch? You think they'd learn.

Well the same can be true of these laptops. How many times does a company/government branch have to lose a laptop before they learn? The simplest solution is to stop putting people's data on laptops! Sheesh.

It's almost like they don't even know what they're doing.

(Image is in the Public Domain)

Schneier reports that the government will begin encrypting all laptops. This is in response to case after case of stolen laptops leading to loss of personal data such as in the case with the Veterans Administration.

Considering that the typical response is to offer worthless credit monitoring services to make it look like they're doing something when they're actually not, this is a welcome change. Now if only they'll hold employees accountable for keeping the key/token/passwords in the same bag with the laptop…

Oops. Sorry about all your data gosh golly wilikers!

(Image is used under the Pixabay license)

Consumer Affairs writes:

A laptop containing the personal information of 328,000 current and former employees of Boeing was stolen in Chicago, according to the company. The laptop theft was the third to befall Boeing in the past twelve months. Boeing is contacting the affected employees by mail and has promised to set up free credit monitoring for them through the Experian credit bureau.