State Department says 400 stray laptops turned up

8 May 2008 | 15:16 BST

By INQUIRER Newsdesk

Knew they were around here somewhere

THE US State Department seems to have found 400 laptops that it lost last week.

The laptops were supposed to be shipped out to "friendly" foreign police forces by the Diplomatic Security service until someone lost track of them.

The diplomats had a good rummage around a few days after the loss of the laptops was reported by www.cqpolitics.com.

An official told the publication that the laptops had now turned up though couldn't say where they were exactly.

A spokeswoman later sent CQ a prepared statement in which she said the laptops "have been accounted for and readied for shipment.”

She added: "We have not identified any missing laptops containing classified or personal, data."

But according to a mole CQ seems to have at the State Department, it hasn't the foggiest idea where loads of its laptops are.

An official in charge of computer equipment, John Streufert, warned of a “significant deficiency” of laptops at a meeting attended by the mole.

“We haven’t done well in the laptop department,” confessed Streufert.

The State Department also can't say whether the contents of its laptops are encrypted or not. µ

L'INQ
CQ Politics