It appears that access codes to the International Space Station were kept, unencrypted (although I’m not sure it would make a difference) on a laptop that was stolen last year.
Now, this is kind of silly: first, unencrypted? Really? So some guy sitting in his underwear in his den could, say, point the ISS in the other direction? And apparently, unencrypted laptops seem to be the norm at NASA, which ought to put paid to the notion that NASA is strictly a DoD department.
Worse, what if…and this seems a pretty likely scenario now…the laptop was stolen just to gain access to the ISS? After all, a notable exclusion to the program is China (Russia, Japan, Canada, and Europe are the principal partners…and who the hell thought it was a good idea to leave the only nation with any money off the team?)
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm….
One laptop was stolen. Within two days, all other laptops were called in and encrypted – it took weeks with techs working 24×7.
And that’s just so no thief could find out about Mrs. Calabash’s gallstones.
Any company that deploys laptops and/or does not have tight control of access to desktops should have the PCs encrypted.
It is worth remembering that the Founding Fathers were all traitors.