FBI and Sick Kids

One of our submarines is missing tonight
Seems she ran aground on manoeuvres
One of our submarines.
--- Thomas Dolby

If a submarine can be lost, what of confidential data and trust?

Here are two bizarre examples

• the FBI losing laptops and weapons
• the Hospital for Sick Children losing a laptop with patient information

The FBI

"According to a new report by the Office of the Inspector General, two and three laptops each month are lost or stolen from the bureau—and the FBI cannot determine in many cases whether the computers contained classified data."
--- eWeek (Feb 12, 2007)

That's scary. Losses are understandable. Watch movies and you'll see lots of FBI equipment getting discarded or blown up. Wouldn't you think they'd know if the data was classified, though?

Hospital for Sick Children


This article left me speechless (or whatever you call it when you don't know what to type). Wouldn't you expect a hospital to encrypt and protect patient files without being told? Evidently not.

Who can you trust these days?