Government iPad Stolen Before Testing Even Starts

There are a few red faces over at the Veteran's Affairs Department headquarters in Washington. The day after they unboxed iPads for a pilot program, one of the tablet computers was already missing.

The iPad had not been issued to an employee and did not have any apps or information loaded on it, according to VA Chief Information Officer Roger Baker.

It sounds as if they thief seized an opportunity: Baker said that if the iPad had been formatted, the $50 million department-developed cyber security app would've been able to find it. The data service plan was cancelled as soon as it was discovered missing. Security footage hasn't yielded any info about the theft that included another 21 computers.

Blog Next Gov reported that the iPads will be loaded with an app of patient records as well as other apps. Those records will be downloaded only by doctors in encrypted form.

The hiccup is a small one in an 1,000 iPad-deployment. Baker said that while there are currently only 500 Apple devices (iPads and iPhones) in use at the VA, he expects the number of iPads to mushroom a thousand and eventually tens of thousands. The VA has plans to roll out 100,000 tablet computers (Android and Apple) and in line with the U.S. CIO's recently unveiled "Future First" plan to move to cloud computing.

Via Next Gov