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State Rep. Dermody's laptop taken from his car in Oakmont
Jul 02, 2009 (The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Thieves stole a legislator's state-issued laptop from his car in Oakmont last weekend, but no confidential records were on it.
State Rep. Frank Dermody, D-Oakmont, said he left the laptop in the car parked in the driveway at his home on Woodland Avenue.
Police said Dermody's laptop was among the haul taken from seven vehicles parked in the same neighborhood.
"I'm a crime victim," Dermody said by phone Wednesday from his Harrisburg office.
Dermody said he uses the state's laptop to e-mail constituents and lawmakers. He said he called the Legislature's information technology staff to change the password.
"There is no reason to cause consternation on the public's behalf," said Dermody, who has served in the House since 1991.
Bob Caton, spokesman for House Speaker Keith R. McCall, said the Legislature's computer system has data-access safeguards. Constituent or other sensitive information would remain confidential because of how the lawmaker laptops work, Caton said.
Sensitive information is kept on a central network, not within individual computers.
"This is a secure system," Caton said. "If anyone came in to file an application for the PACE program, for example, that information wouldn't be on Mr. Dermody's laptop."
He said the theft was the first he has heard about since the laptops were issued.
Oakmont police Chief David DiSanti said little about the theft, which became known yesterday after an Allegheny County 911 dispatcher inadvertently broadcast an alert that included a mention that a state lawmaker's laptop was being sought.
"They should not have made that public," DiSanti said.
He said the investigation is continuing.
To see more of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review or to subscribe to the newspaper,
go to http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/. Copyright (c) 2009, The
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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