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Apr 9, 2007 6:42 pm US/Central
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Teachers Call For Action Over Stolen Laptops
Union Says Schools CEO Should Be Punished For Theft Of Computers
by Dorothy Tucker
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
The teachers union issued a strong call for action Monday. It wants schools CEO Arne Duncan to be punished for an incident last week in which two laptops were stolen from Chicago Public Schools headquarters.
According to the union the stolen laptops represent Duncan's third strike, because this is the third time teachers' personal information has been compromised.
As CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker reports, the police are closing in on the laptop thief.
They have gotten calls, numerous tips and have a couple of names they are looking for.
If the man who stole two laptops from CPS headquarters is the one captured by a surveillance camera, then CPS officials say the police may know who he is.
Sources at the school board told CBS 2 that tipsters have given police two names and authorities are looking for the suspects. Sources say they are confident the man is not a current CPS employee, and that the suspect was captured on several surveillance cameras coming into the front door, on the 16th floor, the 6th floor and the stairwell of the 13th floor.
It was in an office on the 13th floor that the laptops were taken. They belonged to two outside accountants and contained the names and Social Security numbers of 40,000 employees.
"We're deeply sorry that this happened and we're working hard to make this right," Duncan said.
But sorry doesn't seem to be enough for the president of the teachers union.
"If Arne Duncan cannot guarantee the protection of our privacy and information that we give CPS, he should not have that job," said Marilyn Stewart, the Chicago Teachers Union president.
Stewart says this latest incident is the third time in less than six months that the personal information of CPS employees has been compromised. She says last November nearly 1,800 names and home addresses of former employees were accidentally mailed out. And in January the board improperly distributed W-2 forms.
"It's happened three times. We're in a baseball town. Three strikes and you're out," Stewart said.
Laptop computers are inviting targets for thieves, and confidential information saved on hard drives can lead to identity theft.
Business consultant John Challenger says the risk is growing because many people who use a laptop as their main computer are not security conscious.
"What's happening is that more and more people are using the laptop as their computer, they're working on this data -- say the names of all these teachers -- and then they're not getting rid of the data at the end of the day," he said.
Challenger says many organizations do not realize how risky laptops can be when it comes to confidential information.
He says they need to come up with better security procedures.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)