In response to a request by the House Committee on Government Reform, red-faced department officials said that they must have put the laptops down somewhere couldn't remember where they put them. They would probably forget their head, if the name Carlos M. Gutierrez was not screwed onto his door.

Among the missing laptops were more than 250 from the Census Bureau which contained names, incomes and Social Security numbers.

It seems that the department was the worst offender when it came to losing laptops. But departmental spinners tried to put a brave face on things. They pointed out that the numbers of missing computers was high, but fortunately, data misuse was low.

It seems that this was more good luck than management. Although all were password protected only 107 were fully encrypted.

L'INQ
www.commerce.gov