KING TV reports that Fort Lewis soldiers are being warned to watch their credit reports after the recent theft of a laptop containing personal information about "thousands of soldiers." The TV report suggested the entire 4,000-soldier 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, just back from nearly 15 months in Iraq, may be at risk.

Fort Lewis officials told me "the premise of the KING 5 story is generally accurate," but said the computer contained information about 800-900 soldiers. They didn't identify the unit.

Otherwise, the post released a statement:

"The Army takes security of personal information extremely seriously, and we are investigating this incident fully. However, it is apparent that Army standards and policy regarding protection of this information were not followed, and we are making immediate changes to step up enforcement of these policies to prevent this from happening again. We know what information may have been compromised, and we have already begun the process of notifying the appropriate Soldiers. We are also committed to working with local authorities to pursue prosecution to the maximum extent possible if these Soldiers' information is misused."

Lots of follow up questions there. The post's public affairs shop says they'll have more details later today.

UPDATE, 2:50 p.m.: Still waiting on Fort Lewis PAO shop to answer some followup questions. Apparently since this has to do with three of the touchier food groups – law enforcement, information security and personnel – the answers have to go up and down several stove pipes for approval.

At any rate, our friends at the Olympian report that the theft occurred sometime between 9:30 p.m. July 3 and 10 a.m. July 4 from a Dodge pickup parked in the driveway in the 5500 block of 34th Avenue Southeast in Lacey. The reportee was listed as a federal employee of the U.S. Army. The reportee said there was no classified, secret or top secret information stored on the computer and an external 500 GB hard drive.

The reportee said he left the door of the truck unlocked.

Awaiting a copy of the police report.

UDPATE, UPDATE: Fort Lewis finally came through with some additional information shortly after 6 p.m., a mere eight hours after we posed some followup questions. Next time somebody tells me how long it takes to turn around a battle ship ...

I did a quick story for tomorrow's paper that I am posting here:

[More:]

A laptop computer that was reported stolen from an Army employee’s truck last week contained personal information about 800-900 Fort Lewis soldiers, military and police officials said.

A post spokeswoman said officials were notifiying the involved soldiers out of concern the case might put them at risk for identity theft.

Officials said the employee, a civilian military personnel specialist, appears to have violated Army standards and policies for protecting personal information and government property.

The Army is assisting Lacey police with the theft investigation and conducting its own review, said Catherine Caruso, a Fort Lewis spokeswoman.

“We’re not releasing anything more about what information was inappropriately compromised or about the soldiers whose information was involved,” Caruso said. “Clearly it was personal information regarding 800-900 soldiers from Fort Lewis. Beyond that, we’d rather not specify.”

Federal agencies have stepped up their security requirements for personal information stored on laptops and portable hard drives in the wake of several high-profile laptop thefts the past two years, notably at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

In one May 2006 case, VA officials said a stolen laptop contained Social Security numbers and other personal information about as many as 26 million veterans. It was later recovered and department officials believe the information wasn’t compromised.

In this case, an Army employee told Lacey police he left the laptop and a 500 gigabyte removable hard drive on the seat of his Dodge truck, parked unlocked in front of his house overnight July 3-4.

He reported them stolen about 10 a.m. on the 4th.

He told police there was no classified, secret or top-secret information on the laptop and the hard drive.

Lacey police redacted the man’s name from a copy of the report it released Thursday. Fort Lewis declined to identify him pending the military’s investigation.

The case was first reported Wednesday night by KING-5 news.

Caruso said the employee was working on a project regarding a particular unit at a location other than his office.

She said “it would be inappropriate to speculate” about what potential disciplinary action the worker might face if he is found to have broken the post’s security rules.

She said the Army began no later than Wednesday notifying the affected soldiers by e-mail and phone calls. They’ll get followup letters, she said.

Army laptops and removable storage devices containing personal information are generally restricted to on-post workplaces but can be signed out with a supervisor’s permission. They’re also supposed to password protected and personal information is supposed to be encrypted, Caruso said.

Since the theft, post officials have set new training requirements for military personnel staff and prepared a memo for each employee to sign outlining the safeguarding and reporting requirements, she said.

Jeremy Pawloski of The Olympian contributed to this report.