eDiscovery Daily Blog

• March 28, 2017

I have something in common with a Secret Service agent.  We both have had a laptop stolen out of a vehicle.

In the case of the Secret Service agent, as reported by CBS New York (and covered by Ride the Lightning), an unoccupied vehicle with Maryland plates was broken into in the driveway of the agent in Brooklyn earlier this month and a bag with a laptop and other items belonging to the agent was stolen.  The laptop supposedly contained sensitive information, including Trump Tower floor plans and evacuation protocol as well as information pertaining to Hillary Clinton’s campaign email investigation, but no sensitive information related to the White House on the laptop.

Other sensitive documents that were in the car were also taken, but it’s unclear what those documents are, according to CBS. The information on the laptop cannot be remotely erased, sources said.

“The U.S. Secret Service can confirm that an employee was the victim of a criminal act in which our Agency issued laptop computer was stolen,” the agency said in a statement on March 17. “Secret Service issued laptops contain multiple layers of security including full disk encryption and are not permitted to contain classified information. An investigation is ongoing and the Secret Service is withholding additional comment until the facts are gathered.”

Ultimately, the NYPD recovered the bag – black with a Secret Service insignia on it – which contained a collection of coins and other items, but no laptop.  There was also video showing the apparent suspect pulling up to the agent’s house and later carrying and disposing the bag.

The same thing happened to me back in 2014, as I was preparing to travel to LegalTech New York (LTNY) with my colleagues and we stopped at a restaurant to wait out a flight delay (during the great New York ice storm of 2014).  Our bags were in my boss’s truck, a mere 12 feet away from the entrance to the restaurant, just around the corner.  Several bags were stolen, including my laptop – the one time that I decided to leave it in a vehicle (I swear).  Now, I always take it with me, even if I’m just stopping at a convenience store for a drink.

Fortunately, the laptop was very well secured with encryption and good authentication security and I don’t keep client data on my local laptop.  That didn’t stop me from changing every online password that I could think of – eighteen of them.  Can’t be too careful.

We like to think that data stored locally on our laptops is more secure that data out on the cloud, but that’s often not true.  Maybe that’s why some think that, by 2020, 92 percent of everything we do will be in the cloud.  With locally stored data, you’re just a stolen laptop away from potentially being compromised.  Even if your job is to protect the president.

So, what do you think?  Have you ever had a laptop stolen?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

P.S. — The photo above is stock footage, not the actual theft of the agent’s laptop.  I know nothing about the theft, honest!

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