Laptop theft could produce many Pandora's boxes

Aug 1, 2006 12:00 PM, LARRY ANDERSON, EDITOR

When the laptop computer containing data on thousands of veterans was stolen earlier this year, it was easy to fear the worst: That someone had stolen the computer in order to obtain the confidential, personal information it contained, and to use that information for nefarious purposes.

With the VA data at risk, the scenarios that could have resulted are quite scary.

Good that, it turns out, the teenagers who stole the laptop most likely took it for the value of the electronics, rather than the value (or potential for ill-gotten gain) contained inside the computer's programs.

Although the data was returned apparently untouched when the laptop was found, there were those who were not sure. Maybe the data had been copied without leaving any traces behind? Or worse, what about next time?

The episode reminds me of the Greek myth about Pandora's box — the story of a woman who took delivery of a rather ornate box and who had an uncontrollable temptation to open it and see what was inside, despite her husband's warnings not to bother it (the husband always knows best). The rest of the story, of course, is pre-history: Pandora opened the box and released all the diseases, sorrows, crimes, et.al. that afflict humanity.

In the instance of the lost VA laptop, such potential devastation was averted. The lid remained on the box. In this case, it was the value of the “box” that attracted our thieves — not its contents. But with the sheer numbers of “Pandora's boxes” (i.e., portable computer devices) that are in the world today, and the millions of ways they could wreak havoc if they were “opened,” how can we ever stop worrying?

In the story of Pandora, after all the pestilence and brown-winged creatures escaped from the box, there remained a kindly creature that the gods had also put in the box — Hope, whose mission it was to heal the wounds inflicted by the other spirits.

In the case of missing laptops, Hope comes in the form of encryption and other security programs to protect the data and to help track down the computers when they are stolen. The next time, when Pandora's box gets opened for real, Hope may be all we have.

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