RSSTwo Arrested in Military Laptop Theft
By the Betanews Staff | Published August 7, 2006, 12:57 PM
Two Virginia teens were arrested and charged over the weekend with the theft of a laptop which contained data on 25 million active-duty and retired military personnel. However, police reports indicate that the two claim they were not aware of what the laptop contained until the theft received national attention in the media.
Jesus Alex Pineda and Christian Brian Montano, both 19 of Rockville, MD, have been charged with first-degree burglary and theft, with Montano also being charged with conspiracy. Charges are also pending against a third suspect, although he will be treated as a juvenile. The laptop was recovered on June 28, but it was not until Friday that a tip led police and the FBI to the two suspects.
These "ADULTS" should be charged with treason. Their actions betrayed the entire nation. Throw the entire law library at them, not just a page. Set a clear example and maybe, just maybe people will think a little twice about what they are stealing. And I happen to agree with zridling.. what is that information even doing on a laptop.
Now they have gone and lost the information twice in six months. Class Action Lawsuit comes to mind. And this time, its not frivolous.
I am so disgusted with the fleecing and mis-management of the government. Someone please tell the Aliens to quit throwing their science experiments out the window in front of the VA administrations office, they seem to think those are employees from heaven.
If they get any more smarter, you will need to water them twice a week.
GEEZ.
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|I just feel so secure knowing that the Military Personnel Center's have invested billions in data security so that two teenagers could steal the data from some jerk's house.
It was so kind of the government to send me a letter assuring me they were taking appropriate action to prevent this from happening again. Well guess what? It happened again.
Your tax dollars at work!!!
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|In republican fantasyland, no one ever gets fired for doing anything — especially criminal activity. VA Secretary Jim Nicholson should be Gitmoized for his complete idiocy, as there is NEVER, EVER a need to have that data on a laptop. Ever.
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|In republican fantasyland...
Now why'd you have to do that? You might have had a good point, but I didn't even read it. One sure way to *not* persuade someone is to start off by provoking a negative reaction.
BTW, I'm not Republican. Nor am I Democrat. I refuse to be pigeonholed.
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|Conspiracy?
What about the f'ing moron who brought the damn thing home without permission??
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|Although you were probably asking rhetorically, I think conspiracy in this context simply means that Montano agreed with one or more others to commit the burglary. Nonetheless, you're of course correct that the VA employee should not have brought the laptop home.
In regard to the original story--as a very minor point--the teens are from Maryland (as mentioned in the second paragraph) and the VA employee's home, where the burglary occurred, is in Maryland. I think someone mistook VA (Veterans Affairs) for the Commonwealth of Virginia in writing "Virginia teens."
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|...and why wasn't the information encrypted?
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|What about this? Looks like he had permission. http://www.columbian.com...AP06292006news39399.cfm
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|Looks like they need to do some, er... In house cleaning.
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|LOL... common "business" reply from my IT manager goes as follows:
"All,
Please DO NOT encrypt any data on your computer. In the event that you lose your password (or some other loss of access to the machine), the IT department cannot and will not be able to recover your data. In the event that you have encrypted your data, please follow the instructions below to disable the encryption."
Believe me, I can't make this $h1t up! I got into a 2 hour screaming match with him about how stupid could he possibly be...
~dnc.
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|He's (or She's) an idiot, and should be fired.
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|Depends on the type of data, I suppose.
None of the computers at my location store any of our data. We use Deep Freeze, so nothing ever gets saved to the disks that wasn't there upon deployment. Kinda makes encryption pointless. ;)
Hey, fewt: Gotta put up TW game "D" with unlimited turns, man. 2 hours a day just ain't enough for me now. ;)
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|indeed
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|Please tell me you are kidding...
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