shawn stonbraker 2
Well-Known Member
They found it. Now they just have to figure if it's been copied or such.
VA laptop found...
- Thread starter shawn stonbraker 2
- Start date
Help Support Ford SportTrac Forum:
Richard Kolb
Well-Known Member
yeah, hopefully it wasn't I'd like to think my money is safe.
Dale Carlson
Active Member
I just breathed a sigh of relief - sort of. From another article:
"The FBI, in a statement from its Baltimore field office, said a preliminary review of the equipment by its computer forensic teams "has determined that the data base remains intact and has not been accessed since it was stolen." More tests were planned, however."
Besides being one of the 26.5 million vets affected, I'm a professional geek, and I know that it's possible to find out if the data on that laptop and external hard drive were accessed. There are date/time stamps all over the place in all of the operating systems that I know of.
What I don't know is if the forensic guys can tell if the drives have been imaged or not. For the un-informed, an image is a bit-by-bit copy of a drive (or disk or volume or partition). You don't have to access the data on the drive to image it - and you can save the image for later. In fact, I'd bet you money that the first thing the lab guys did was to get an image of the drives to make sure they had a pristine copy of everything on them.
So I'm gonna worry just a little bit for just a little bit longer. Unless somebody can tell me different.
"The FBI, in a statement from its Baltimore field office, said a preliminary review of the equipment by its computer forensic teams "has determined that the data base remains intact and has not been accessed since it was stolen." More tests were planned, however."
Besides being one of the 26.5 million vets affected, I'm a professional geek, and I know that it's possible to find out if the data on that laptop and external hard drive were accessed. There are date/time stamps all over the place in all of the operating systems that I know of.
What I don't know is if the forensic guys can tell if the drives have been imaged or not. For the un-informed, an image is a bit-by-bit copy of a drive (or disk or volume or partition). You don't have to access the data on the drive to image it - and you can save the image for later. In fact, I'd bet you money that the first thing the lab guys did was to get an image of the drives to make sure they had a pristine copy of everything on them.
So I'm gonna worry just a little bit for just a little bit longer. Unless somebody can tell me different.
Dale Carlson
Active Member
And, more...
I heard them announce that they found the laptop and the good news was that all the data was intact???? I'm sure that who ever had the laptop has had ample time to copy all the files, wipe his prints off the PC and dump it where it can be found. If the guy who stole it didn't know the significance of the data on the PC, the media coverage would have quickly clued him in. The data has many times more value than the used laptop. There is not way for them to know if the data was copied.
The VA employee that violated security by taking the files home should get more than just being fired...That should be a criminal offense even if the data was never compromised. That would serve as a good warning to anyother government employee with access to private, personal information, that if they abuse their trust there will be criminal penalties.
...Rich
The VA employee that violated security by taking the files home should get more than just being fired...That should be a criminal offense even if the data was never compromised. That would serve as a good warning to anyother government employee with access to private, personal information, that if they abuse their trust there will be criminal penalties.
...Rich
Kevin Long
Active Member
There are so many conflicting stories, I have read one where the employee had permission to take the laptop home to work on a project in order to meet a deadline.
This administration has the reputation of hiding and distorting facts left and right from the top down, it would not suprise me if this employee (or contractor) was made out to be the fall guy to cover for some other high powered schmuck that was appointed to his position but had no qualifications.
"You're doing a great job, Brownie!"
This administration has the reputation of hiding and distorting facts left and right from the top down, it would not suprise me if this employee (or contractor) was made out to be the fall guy to cover for some other high powered schmuck that was appointed to his position but had no qualifications.
"You're doing a great job, Brownie!"
