Ride the Lightning

The Secret Service Makes Me Nervous (When it Loses a Laptop)

March 23, 2017

Some of you may be too young to remember the song "The Secret Service Makes Me Nervous" so I obligingly include a link to the song in the 1962 Broadway production of Mr. President. For some reason, my Swedish grandmother was captivated by the title which she was prone to singing at odd moments.

I thought of her this week when I read the headlines about the Secret Service losing a laptop. Not only a laptop, but one containing sensitive information, including Trump Tower floor plans and evacuation protocol as well as information pertaining to Hillary Clinton's campaign e-mail investigation, according to a CBS story,

Now that's not a laptop you want to lose. And once again, we see why it is not a good idea to leave a laptop in a car, even if it is parked in the driveway of a Secret Service agent's home.

Other sensitive documents that were in the car were also taken, but it's unclear what those documents are.

"The U.S. Secret Service can confirm that an employee was the victim of a criminal act in which our Agency issued laptop computer was stolen," the agency said in a statement last Friday. "Secret Service issued laptops contain multiple layers of security including full disk encryption and are not permitted to contain classified information. An investigation is ongoing and the Secret Service is withholding additional comment until the facts are gathered."

This mystified me. It seemed to me that the data we know that laptop carried would certainly be considered classified information.

It is unclear if the theft was random of if the agent was targeted. CBS reported that the stolen laptop is considered a compromise of national security. Not sure why that would be true if the laptop had full disk encryption. But what do I know? All I know is that the Secret Service makes me nervous.

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