Department Of The Interior Can't Locate Many PCs – They Have No Encryption Requirements

I know this is not healthcare and may be more about the quality of fish that we eat, but any government agency should be encrypting their data, much less keeping on top of where the hardware is, unless the Grizzly's have been making off with them to calculate when it is time to hibernate (grin). Also, any hardware with a value of under $5000.000 under current policy does not require it to be tracked, well that’s all the computers and maybe a few small severs. BD

The Department of the Interior can't specifically locate 20% of a sample of 2,500 computers -- largely in the Fish and Wildlife Service -- and is definitely missing at least 13 computers, according to a report by the Department of the Interior's inspector general. To make matters worse, the department has no encryption requirements, so there's concern that missing PCs might be vulnerable to data theft or loss.

In many cases, Department of the Interior can't even tell where or to whom agency computers are assigned, the report noted. Fish and Wildlife Service records were singled out as especially poor. The Department of the Interior's accountability is bad enough that the 13 computers identified as missing wouldn't have even been identified as such if not for the inspector general's report.

Between October 2007 and November 2008, the department reported the loss of 66 laptops, including 17 losses identified as "high criticality." The agencies with the highest reported incidence of loss were actually the ones most able to provide information on the locations of their laptops to the inspector general, suggesting that these numbers could be even higher.

Department Of The Interior Can't Locate Many PCs -- Security – InformationWeek