June 15, 2006

Laptop thefts prompts call for audit

BY PATRICK SWEENEY

Following two recent thefts of laptop computers from the Minnesota auditor's office, two Democratic state legislators today urged the auditor to seek an independent review of data security practices.

The legislators, Jim Davnie of Minneapolis and Melissa Hortman of Brooklyn Park, also called on Republican auditor Patricia Anderson to pay up to $90,000 to hire a credit-monitoring company to look for any signs of identity theft stemming from the thefts.

The names and Social Security numbers of about 500 public employees were on the three laptops taken in the most recent theft. Other private information on about 1,900 other people, mostly participants in public programs that Anderson's staff was auditing, also was stolen.

While the computers were password-protected, the information they contained was not encrypted.

Davnie said the data would be available to any "not very sophisticated" computer hacker who might come into possession of the laptops.

So far, Anderson's staff and St. Paul police have found no evidence suggesting the private information on the computers has been misused. But Anderson said today that her staff has now installed encrypted software on other computers, and she said employees have begun installing cable locks on both laptop and desktop computers.

"The likelihood that the computers were stolen for the data is almost zero," Anderson said. But, in letters to the people whose private information was put at risk, she urged the people to telephone national credit-monitoring agencies and make a cost-free request for a fraud alert to be included in their files.

Anderson said the additional step Davnie and Hortman called for -- hiring a firm to look for signs of identity theft -- was not needed. "I don't know that I have the authority, the budget authority, to do that," she said.

The first computer theft from Anderson's office occurred in early to mid-May. She said that laptop was a new computer that contained no private data. Three more laptops discovered missing on Thursday, but were the theft was not reported to police until Saturday.

Those three computers were the ones that contained the private data.

Hortman questioned whether Anderson responded properly to the first theft. "Was everything done that could prevent it this time?" she asked.

On Wednesday, Anderson's Democratic-Farmer-Labor opponent, Rebecca Otto, also criticized Anderson for campaigning in southern Minnesota on Wednesday, instead of being at work, responding to the thefts.

Anderson acknowledged she was on a campaign trip Wednesday. She denied she was needed in her office to oversee the new security measures or to notify the people whose data was put at risk.

Patrick Sweeney covers state government and its effect on Minnesotans. He can be reached at psweeney@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5253.