FBI looking into laptops given to U.S. governors

Jake Widman
Tuesday, 01 September 2009 04:13

Business IT - Security

Following up on mysterious deliveries of HP laptops to three U.S. state governors' offices, the FBI is trying to find out who's placing the orders. The shipments began in early August, and addition to the four deliveries, six other orders have been intercepted.

As reported by the IDG News Service, the first deliveries were to the Wyoming governor's offices on August 3 and 6.

After receiving the second shipment, office staff became suspicious and turned the computers over to the police.

Meanwhile, on August 5, five unordered laptops were also delivered to the governor's office in West Virginia.

That story was covered by the Charleston Gazette, which quoted administrative manager Cindy Smith as saying the packages were addressed to "Gov. Joe Manchin" at his Capitol address.

No one had ordered the computers, so "for security reasons, we didn't even turn them on," Smith said. Her office checked with the state's Chief Technology Officer, which also had no record of the order. At that point, the governor's office contacted the state police.

Besides Wyoming and West Virginia, Vermont was also reported to have received laptops. 

For more on the mystery, see Page 2.