The laptop was stolen from the Secret Service Agent’s car in Brooklyn on Thursday morning, according to senior officers from the NYPD. Reportedly the information it contains is highly encrypted, but it does, reportedly, contain the floor plans and evacuation protocol for Trump Tower. That information cannot be accessed remotely, so officials are unable to erase it from the laptop. This leaves the information on the laptop at risk, should someone have the technology to break the encryption.

Since the laptop was stolen on Thursday morning from the Secret Service Agent's car, police have been unable to track it down.

According to one of the officials, the agent in question has said the incident was a compromise of national security.

Lapel assignment pins included in the haul

Besides the laptop, several lapel assignment pins, used by the agent to access security details protecting various personages, were stolen. According to CNN, those pins were used by the agent to access security details protecting Donald Trump, the Pope, Hillary Clinton and the United Nations General Assembly. Both the laptop and the pins were reportedly stored in a backpack that was stolen from the car, parked in the driveway of the agent’s home. According to police, the backpack has been found, but there is still no sign of the laptop.

This was 'petty theft' according to a former Secret Service agent

Fox News reports that a former Secret Service Agent, Dan Bongino, told them he thinks this is petty theft, and that such a crime is relatively common in that area. Bongino does not believe it is a national security issue, or that the particular agent was being targeted by the thief.

Bongino did add that if any security information about Trump Tower was stored on the laptop, the whole Secret Service security plan for that building would probably need to be overhauled. However, he stressed for a second time that the incident will be investigated as a “street crime.”

However, to counter that statement, the New York Daily News quotes an NYPD source as saying there is highly sensitive data stored on the stolen laptop and that the agency is “scrambling like mad.”

Secret Service confirms the theft

Cathy Milhoan, a spokeswoman, has confirmed that the laptop has been stolen and that their office is investigating the incident.

Milhoan stressed that laptops issued by the Secret Service to their agents do have multiple layers of security, which includes full disk encryption, adding that agents are not permitted to store classified information on their laptops.

While the investigation is still ongoing, the agency says it is withholding any additional comment until all the facts are gathered. Milhoan requested that anyone who may have information relating to the crime should please contact the NYPD and the New York Field Office of the U.S. Secret Service.
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