August 6th, 2008
TSA vendor finds lost laptop, remains suspended
Travelers who use the Transportation Security Administration’s Registered Traveler program might be verified as good security risks but the same can’t be said about Steven Brill’s Verified Identity Pass, one of the TSA vendors that operates the program.
VIP, under the brand name Clear, lost a laptop containing 33,000 registered travelers’ names — but announced last Tuesday the laptop has been found.
“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 statement. “We’re glad to confirm that a preliminary investigation shows no personal information was compromised.”
PC World reports that the laptop disappeared from a locked office at the San Francisco International Airport on July 26. VIP began notifying customers of the breach late Monday and VIP was suspended from , after the TSA announced it had suspended VIP from enrolling new customers into its Registered Traveler program.
The laptop contained unencrypted names, addresses, birth dates, driver’s license numbers and passport numbers of customers seeking to enroll in the company’s Registered Traveler program.
VIP will be required to submit an independent audit, verifying that required security measures are in place, the TSA said. The agency will verify the audits before VIP can resume its Registered Traveler program, PCW says.
