08 August 2008

Missing “Registered Traveler” Laptop Found

John Sterlicchi

The missing laptop that contained unencrypted information about members of the US Transportation Security Administration's Registered Traveler program has been found.

Verified Identity Pass (VIP), which runs the program, confirmed that it recovered the laptop that it had reported missing from its office at the San Francisco Airport.

Moreover, VIP determined from a preliminary investigation that the laptop was not accessed from the time it went missing in the office until the time it was found. Further forensic investigation is being conducted by law enforcement officials.

"We apologize for the confusion but in an abundance of caution, we treated this unaccounted-for laptop as a serious potential breach," VIP CEO Steven Brill said in a press release. "We're glad to confirm that a preliminary investigation shows no personal information was compromised."

The laptop went missing from a locked office at the San Francisco International Airport on July 26.

It was said to contain 33 000 unencrypted personal records, including names, addresses, birth dates, driver's license numbers and passport numbers of customers seeking to enroll in the company's Registered Traveler program. TSA required Registered Traveler vendors to encrypt personal information, a TSA spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The company stressed there were no credit card or social security numbers stored on the laptop. Nor was there any biometric information, such as the applicant’s encrypted fingerprint images or encrypted iris images (which are supplied during the second, in-person enrollment process that takes place at the airport).

VIP also announced that it was suspending enrollment processes temporarily until this information was encrypted for further protection.

All airport lane operations have continued as normal. The information on the laptop had already been secured by two levels of password protection. VIP is in the process of completing that software fix – and other laptop security enhancements -- to encrypt the data.

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