In July 2006, a thief stole an OIG Special Agent’s laptop computer from a locked government vehicle in Doral, Florida, near Miami.  This laptop contained SPII (an individual’s name plus other identifying information such as Social Security number or date of birth) for thousands of Florida residents.  This theft and the discovery that SPII was involved led the then-Acting Inspector General to order an investigation not only of the Miami-area theft, but also of an earlier theft of an OIG laptop that occurred in Orlando, Florida, in April 2006.

Our latest report http://www.oig.dot.gov/files/November21_2006statusreport.pdf is the result of our desire to keep affected individuals and the public informed about our efforts to deal with the loss of Sensitive Personally Identifiable Information on two laptops stolen from Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General Special Agents. Our aim is to release a comprehensive final report on these events by the end of the year.

This status report notes several important developments, including the fact that as a result of our investigation in cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Miami-Dade County Police Department, two individuals have been arrested for their alleged roles in a small Miami-area laptop theft ring.  While the laptops have not been recovered, there has been no credit fraud resulting from the laptop thefts and we believe that the risk of credit fraud in the future is very low.  A firm hired to perform data breach analysis has failed to find any misuse of information on the laptops, and will continue to analyze the information.  We will continue to receive regular reports so we are in a position to identify and act on any potential abuse in the future.

A second development is that we contracted with an Identity Risk Management company to review SPII data for almost 133,000 individuals on the Miami-area laptop and almost 9,500 individuals on the Orlando laptop (those same 9,500 individuals were also on the Miami-area laptop).  The review found no indication that the data had been misused as of November 13, 2006.  OIG will continue to receive periodic reports on whether there is an indication of suspicious activity that involves organized misuse of SPII from the laptops.

Individuals who believe they may be affected are encouraged to review the Frequently Asked Questions section of this site.  Further information will be posted to this web site as it becomes available.  In addition, individuals who need assistance or would like to provide information that may assist in the investigation can contact our hotline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at (800) 424-9071 and by email at hotline@oig.dot.gov.