Landing the Big One

Landing the Big One

Thursday, February 17, 2005

The Mystery of the Missing Laptop?

Border Patrol laptop goes missing as reported here
here
. May or may not be a security threat.
The long-time sources told 10News that Border Patrol personnel were being interviewed by U.S. Navy (news - web sites) intelligence officers in regards to the laptop. They also described the laptop as a prototype developed to provide access to surveillance video from remote cameras along the border. It was described as a "top secret" project with homeland security applications.
On the other hand,
The organization actually providing the computer hardware and software to the Border Patrol is Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center San Diego (SSC San Diego), another Navy command reporting to SPAWAR, commanded by a Navy captain and headquartered in San Diego under various titles since 1940. Lapuzza says, the laptop which was missing was an unclassified piece of hardware, and at no time did it ever contain top secret, secret or even classified information of any kind. It had no information on "how the borders are protected." It was, as stated somewhat correctly in your story, "part of a prototype surveillance system." It controlled the movement (pan and tilt) of cameras positioned along the border to allow officials to monitor such things as illegal entry into the country. The computer only controlled movement of the cameras; images collected by the cameras were sent elsewhere.


Note to security personnel- Laptops, as any college kid could tell you, are easy to steal.

Hat tip: The Counterterrorism Blog

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