Nearly a decade after a State Department laptop containing highly classified information disappeared in an embarrassing security lapse, the agency still is unable to account for all of its portable computers, a government report said Wednesday.
The State Department’s inspector general said Wednesday that a review of a sample of 334 laptops belonging to four departmental bureaus found that 27 were missing at the time of the audit and that 172, including nine of 14 classified laptops labeled “secret,” were not protected with encryption software, a potential risk to sensitive information.
“The department does not have an accurate accounting for and has not encrypted all of its classified and unclassified laptop computers in the Washington, D.C., area for the four bureaus included in (the inspector general’s) audit,” the report said.
No evidence suggests that any sensitive information has been compromised, and officials assured the auditors that the missing laptops, estimated to be worth $55,000, did not contain secrets, the report says.
But the computers and the contents of their hard drives could still be at risk, the inspector general’s report said.
“Department officials could not provide … documentation to support their assertions that the hard drives of the missing laptop computers did not contain (personally identifiable information) or classified information,” it said.
“Because the content and the encryption status of the missing laptop computers are unknown, there is a risk that (personally identifiable information) and other sensitive department information may be susceptible to unauthorized access and use,” the report said.
The inspector general’s review was designed to see how the department has handled directives to boost the security of its laptop computers, including requirements to encrypt all information deemed sensitive in the devices. The report recommends that the department refocus attention on laptop security.
In 2000, disciplinary action was recommended against six State Department employees in connection with…