US probes whether laptop copied on China trip ( Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez's trip)

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. authorities are investigating whether Chinese officials secretly copied the contents of a government laptop computer during a visit to China by Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez and used the information to try to hack into Commerce computers, officials and industry experts told The Associated Press.

Surreptitious copying is believed to have occurred when a laptop was left unattended during Gutierrez's trip to Beijing for trade talks in December, people familiar with the incident told the AP. These people spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident was under investigation.

Gutierrez told the AP on Thursday he could not discuss whether or how the laptop's contents might have been copied.

"Because there is an investigation going on, I would rather not comment on that," he said. "To the extent that there is an investigation going on, those are the things being looked at, those are the questions being asked. I don't think I should provide any speculative answers


Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g4D9t60-W8j66NYZaBwez4_gq7mwD90VI1A00

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. The Keystone Cops.

[TomInTib]

2. Idiots

Can these guys do anything right?

If there was a movie made of this bunch, Don Knotts would need to play half the characters.

[hisownpetard]

8. If you run out of Don Knottses, I understand that Mick Jagger fills in as his body double.

[Tempest]

3. What's good for the goose is good for the gander

TSA and CBP are confiscating laptops and copying the contents before returning them at international gates in airports.

Companies worldwide are telling their employees to remove all data from their laptops and download it over secured VPNs once they get into the states.

[maddezmom]

4. Jeez, that's the first I heard of it

:scared: My husband travels quite a bit internationally and he's never mentioned it.

[SlipperySlope]

5. What's the big deal?

The current administration says it can copy all laptops entering the US, why shouldn't China do the same?

[Doctor Cynic]

6. In a month the hard drive will be on sale at Wal Mart for $19.99.

[robinlynne]

7. Could be he just went online in China, which is not safe. A friend did and became an immediate

identity theft victim, money out of the bank,etc. It was traced back to going online while in China.
You can only go online in special secure places while there.

[Pavulon]

9. ghost..p2v

lots of ways to copy a machine and leave it intact.

Crypto makes that pretty much pointless. I am sure they are using strong encryption...