Laptop losses at Commerce Dept. are old hat

According to a new review on agencies that use handhelds for data collection, laptops and other handheld devices containing confidential data at the U.S. Commerce Department have been disappearing for the past five years. So far 1,137 laptops have gone missing since 2001--about 250 of those devices housed confidential information. Half of the total devices were property of the Census Bureau. While agency officials say the risk of the data being compromised or used for malicious purposes is low, they're reaching out to 558 consumer households to let them know of the data breach.

For more on the agency laptop review:
- read the article from IDG News Service

PLUS: How to put a laptop security plan in place. Article