Missing Laptop Spurs TSA Suspension Of Clear Reg. Traveler Enrollments

The Transportation Security Administration last night said it is suspending new enrollments in Verified Identity Pass' Clear Registered Traveler program after a company laptop containing records of 33,000 customers went missing from San Francisco International Airport on July 26.

Clear last night said the laptop was stolen from a locked office at the airport, and now the company, as instructed by TSA, is notifying affected customers—"most of whom had signed up online but not yet completed their in-person enrollments, plus a small portion of members who were in the process of having to re-enroll because there had been trouble collecting their biometrics."

TSA also instructed Clear to undergo an independent audit to confirm compliance with security measures before the Registered Traveler provider can resume enrollments. Clear said current members and airport operations would not be impacted by the enrollment suspension.

Clear in a statement said information contained on the missing laptop—including applicants' names, addresses, birth dates and, in some cases, driver's license numbers and passport or alien registration card numbers—is "secured by two levels of password protection." Clear said the laptop does not include any biometric iris-scan or fingerprint data or images.

"There is no reason to believe this is anything other than the simple burglary of a laptop, which the local police are investigating," Verified Identity Pass founder and CEO Steven Brill said in a statement. "For it to be more than that, the thief would have to hack into two different passwords—and even then would not get what identity thieves want most—a Social Security number and/or credit card information."

Brill said the company is cooperating with the police investigation and is adopting new security measures, including data encryption, "which we should have done from the beginning, just the way we already encrypt all of the credit, Social Security number, biometric data and other information."