SHARE

GOP Laptop Stolen After Missouri Break-in

As break-ins go, this one has the whiff of political dirty tricks. Someone or a group of people broke into the Independence, Mo. Victory Office of the Missouri Republican Party last week and apparently made off with a laptop belonging to regional coordinator Brian Johnson. The laptop had “a great deal of strategic information” for […]

Written By: Richard Adhikari

Oct 8, 2008

Datamation content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More

As break-ins go, this one has the whiff of political dirty tricks.

Someone or a group of people broke into the Independence, Mo. Victory Office of the Missouri Republican Party last week and apparently made off with a laptop belonging to regional coordinator Brian Johnson.

The laptop had “a great deal of strategic information” for that part of the state, Tina Hervey, director of communications for the party, told InternetNews.com.

The Victory Office is one of 10 opened by the Missouri Republican Party across the state August 13 to serve as command centers for staff and volunteers, who will work on behalf of Presidential candidate John McCain and the Missouri Republican ticket.

More than 20 other computers in the room were left untouched, Hervey said, adding that the stolen laptop was protected with a password.

The McCain-Palin campaign did not respond to requests for a comment by press time.

Missouri figures largely in the race for the White House. It has 11 seats up for grabs, and is leaning toward voting for McCain, according to some pollsters. But Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama narrowly won his party’s primary against Sen. Hillary Clinton.

According to Hervey, the thief got in by breaking the plate-glass front of the offices, then took only the laptop and put another of the other laptops in its place in a bid to avoid calling notice to what was taken. That was not well thought out, as “the Dell laptop that was stolen was black, and they put a smaller, white laptop in its place.”

Protecting your data

Hervey said the campaign staff had backed up the data on the laptop and has taken steps to ensure that whoever took the computer will not be able to access the party’s network.

They reported the theft to the Independence, Mo. police but the Missouri Republican Party has not approached the FBI or other law enforcement organizations, Hervey added. “We don’t have any proof that it’s anything more than a break-in.”

Still, it’s a break-in raising some questions about what might happen next.

This article was first published on InternetNews.com. To read the full article, click here.

Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: Driving Greater Equality

FEATURE | By James Maguire,
December 16, 2020
AI vs. Machine Learning vs. Deep Learning

FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
December 11, 2020
Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think

FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
December 04, 2020
Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 18, 2020
Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA

FEATURE | By Guest Author,
November 10, 2020
Top 10 AIOps Companies

FEATURE | By Samuel Greengard,
November 05, 2020
What is Text Analysis?

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 02, 2020
How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 29, 2020
Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 23, 2020
The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media

FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
October 16, 2020
Top 10 Chatbot Platforms

FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
October 07, 2020
Finding a Career Path in AI

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
October 05, 2020
CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science

FEATURE | By Guest Author,
September 25, 2020
Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future

FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 25, 2020
Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2021

FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
September 22, 2020
NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
September 18, 2020
Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 14, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 13, 2020
IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI

FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 11, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality

FEATURE | By James Maguire,
September 09, 2020

SEE ALL
ARTICLES

RA

Richard Adhikari

Richard Adhikari is an experienced writer who specializes in high tech. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, mobile technologies, CRM, databases, software development, mainframe, and mid-range computing, and application development. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including eSecurity Planet and Serverwatch. He is the author of two books on client/server technology.

GOP Laptop Stolen After Missouri Break-in

Richard Adhikari

Recommended for you...

Company

Categories

GOP Laptop Stolen After Missouri Break-in

RELATED NEWS AND ANALYSIS

Richard Adhikari

Recommended for you...

Company

Categories