Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

Post by bcrosby95 » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 9:39 PM UTC

35fbe7d3d5b9 wrote: post #46

mumblemumble wrote: post #14

Beyond the information security risk around the loss of this specific device, what really worries me is the physical security implications here. I'm certainly no expert on the subject, but it seems to me like, in a building like the US Capitol, it should not be anywhere near this easy for unauthorized people to waltz into an office or conference room in the first place. Let alone walk away with items from within that…

I've traveled to countries before whose offices of government are behind very large fences, protected by unfriendly looking men standing behind heavy machine guns in armored vehicles – and the guide books are very clear that you are not to take photos of them. I much prefer the approach taken in the USA, where our offices of government are accessible to the people that the government serves. It's very good that I can…

Post by dfsegoat » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 9:39 PM UTC

whalesalad wrote: post #136

> belonged to a conference room and was used for presentations Yikes. My first though was - oh this should be no big deal chances are there are good policies in place for laptops that go home with people. Then I realized it is a shared/central machine which means it probably has the most effed up and relaxed security in the fleet, post-it notes with passwords taped to the palm rests, and god knows what else. IT depar…

Post by djsumdog » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 9:41 PM UTC

Jonnax wrote: post #241

cobookman wrote: post #173

I'm surprised congressional office's laptops do not embed remotely detonated explosives/destruction devices triggered with sat or cellular comms.

You're surprised that politicians don't attach remotely detonated bombs to the laptops?

Post by fphhotchips » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 9:42 PM UTC

kenniskrag wrote: post #446

gizmo686 wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IT should be able to revoke any access the machine has, so the only compromise would be what was already on the machine; which would be the case regardless of security policy, as they could just access the harddrive directly regardless of OS security policy. In practice, it wouldn't suprise me if that computer was locally storing passwords that were not specific to that machine, which might mean needing to revoke a b…

> as they could just access the harddrive directly regardless of OS security policy. I think that's wrong if you consider disk encryption.

Post by michaelbuckbee » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 9:43 PM UTC

dfsegoat wrote: post #523

whalesalad wrote: post #136

> belonged to a conference room and was used for presentations Yikes. My first though was - oh this should be no big deal chances are there are good policies in place for laptops that go home with people. Then I realized it is a shared/central machine which means it probably has the most effed up and relaxed security in the fleet, post-it notes with passwords taped to the palm rests, and god knows what else. IT depar…

If it was a shared machine in a conference room, wouldn't it already physically be accessible to e.g. cleaning and other staff?