FBI still losing laptops

Joe Gandelman points us to a new blog, Clicked at MSNBC that will be doing blog buzz roundups. Joe's right, it's already addictive. I'll be checking in regularly to catch items I might have missed like this one.

The FBI is losing guns and laptops at an alarming rate. The "good" news is they're losing less of them.

In the 44 months that it took to complete the new audit, the FBI lost 160 weapons and 160 laptop computers—a massive improvement over the 354 weapons and 317 laptops lost during the first 28-month-long audit.

The bad news is they don't know what information is stored in the computers.

"Perhaps most troubling," says the report, "the FBI could not determine in many cases whether the lost or stolen laptop computers contained sensitive or classified information. Such information may include case information, personal identifying information, or classified information on FBI operations." Laptops can also contain goodies like the software that the FBI uses to make its identification badges, a copy of which was installed on a laptop stolen from the Boston Field Office in July 2002.

And the Bush administration is trying to make a case against Iran because of 100 rifles that turned up in Iraq? Perhaps they should look to their own house before they start accusing other governments of willingly losing track of their hardware.