Who’s giving US governors free laptops?

Either has somebody has a really big heart and is trying to help out cash strapped governors some free HP laptops or some creative soul is trying a new way to source government secrets. It turns out that officials in 10 states have received free laptops which needless to say has drawn the attention of State Police and the FBI.

In West Virginia laptops were received at the governor’s office and after checking their records to find that they hadn’t order them. State officials in Vermont say that they have received the same kind of unsolicited laptops.

The laptops sent to the Wyoming governor’s office arrived in two separate shipments on Aug. 3 and Aug. 6, according to Cara Eastwood, a spokeswoman for Governor Freudenthal.

“We received one package, opened it and realized that it was an error since no one in our office had ordered them,” she said. “The next day we received another package. At this point we realized that they needed to be turned over to law enforcement.”

Although there is no evidence that the computers contain malicious code, HP confirmed Thursday that there have been several such orders and that they have been linked to fraud. “HP is aware that fraudulent state government orders recently have been placed for small amounts of HP equipment,” spokeswoman Pamela Bonney said in an e-mail message. “HP took prompt corrective action to address the fraudulent orders and is working with law enforcement personnel on a criminal investigation.”

Source: The Standard – FBI investigating laptops sent to US governors