Homeland insecurity

Posted at 12:43 PM on August 5, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

Another headscratcher from the world of high security.

The Transportation Security Administration says a laptop containing the sensitive personal information of 33,000 applicants to an airport security prescreening program has gone missing, the Associated Press reports today.

Agency officials say the unencrypted computer was discovered missing at San Francisco International Airport more than a week ago, though the agency was not notified until Sunday.

The TSA has suspended new enrollments in the program, known as Clear, which allows passengers to pay to use special "fast lanes" at airport security checkpoints.

The Web site where people sign up for the Clear program is pretty unclear about what happened.

"We're updating our software" sounds a tad better than "we accidentally let someone steal your Social Security number, credit card number, home addresses for the last five years, and driver's license number." All of those are required to register for the program.

If only the laptop were a two-year old suspected terrorist.

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