There's a picture (which I think is getting deleted off Twitter, so I won't repost it) but apparently someone was in Nancy Pelosi's office after she evacuated and her computer was unlocked.

What?

I've worked for the US government before: they use CAC cards everywhere.
You insert one to log in/unlock the PC, enter a pin, and then you're in. You then use it to authenticate to internal sites.

Then the moment you remove it, it locks the PC.
And this is the first thing you do when you stand up from your pc.
Heck, they specifically told us to do this if the fire alarm goes off.

I'm fact, many people had their CAC cards on a pendant or belt clip thing, so if you tried to walk away from your pc without locking it, you'd snag the cable and then it'd lock anyway.

So I'm confused by that picture.
It's possible she had a non-government computer in her office, which doesn't use CAC... That was very common, even if against the rules. Government computers are super limited and this makes it hard to get work done.

It also appears, based on some things visible on screen, that it's on the internal government network.
That's definitely not going to be allowed for a non-government computer.

So I think it's gotta be:
It is a government computer, but has been modified to not use CAC login? Maybe senators don't use them for whatever reason

Or, and I consider this unlikely, it does use CAC cards, but Pelosi doesn't keep her card on a pendant and forgot to grab it whole evacuating.

Your CAC card is also your photo ID, and door key, and computer login.
You really don't ever forget that shit.

Anyway that's assuming the picture I saw was legitimate, and was taken in the context described.
Maybe it's from another time, or it's not her computer, or it's been doctored somehow.

Anyway, here's a journalist posting a screenshot of the tweet before it got deleted: https://twitter.com/KeithOlbermann/status/1346918509331304449?s=19

I don't mean to be all like "THERE'S A CONSPIRACY! PEOPLE ARE LYING TO YOU! THE OWLS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM!"

But having worked for the government before, it seemed very odd to see that. It violates a lot of federal security rules.

Also it does appear that the description of it as "Pelosi's computer" is incorrect. The email account on screen belongs to someone else.

Maybe that just means that Pelosi had like 20 staff and when they evacuated, one of them forgot the CAC, so that's where the pictures are from, not the 19 other locked computers.

And it seems the original tweet got deleted by the poster, not any sort of "Twitter is banning the pictures" thing.

Probably someone pointed out to them that the tweet is technically evidence of a felony or three.

Anyway, the idea it's not her computer (but someone else in the building) makes it make more sense to me, just because of probability

The chance that one specific person would forget basic security procedures in an emergency? Kinda low, given how often they drill them and the practical results of screwing it up.

The chance that out of a group of people, at least one of them would screw it up?
Much higher.

I think the confusion comes from there being two photos from different contexts.
There's the "hey look, I'm in Pelosi's chair!" selfie, and a separate "I'm in Pelosi's office, and the computer is unlocked!" photo

The obvious implication being that it's Pelosi's computer, but that's not the case. It's the computer of someone else on her staff.

Correction: not a selfie. This one: https://twitter.com/HuffPost/status/1346917578266996739?s=19

Anyway my point with the CAC is that removing it to go anywhere is second nature. It's not that I'm saying Pelosi and her staff would chose to delay their evacuation to make sure they locked all their computers, I'm saying they wouldn't even think about it.

You take your CAC with you when you stand up because you need it to get anywhere, to prove who you are, heck you might even need it to get in the bathroom.

And it just becomes second nature.
It's like taking your wired headphones off before you walk away

Because you've been doing it every day, on autopilot, and you've had ample chances to get immediate feedback about what happens when you forgot it.

Everyone has a story about the time they walked over to a co-worker's desk without grabbing their CAC, then after talking for a while you went to get lunch, then when you came back the security guard wouldn't let you in the building.

Or you went to the restroom without it, and a security guard saw it left behind in a locked computer, so they confiscated it.

You get back to your desk and can't login, and have to go talk to security

You finally get your card back, log in, and there's a stern letter from IT about it and they want you to retake the yearly security course

But yeah. My point is that it's not like you'd seriously think to remember to grab your CAC during an evacuation, it's just something you would have already done without thinking about it. It's routine and muscle memory and all that.

A couple people have said that congress doesn't use CAC.
That'd be the ultimate explanation, then: they don't have the same sort of easy automatic-log-out that other parts of the government do, and someone didn't hit the lock key before evacuating.

also I swear I was told at the time (admittedly that was like 8 years ago now) that the "lock out when cac is removed" thing was mandatory (and a federal regulation), but a few people have said they're somewhere that uses CACs but doesn't enforce lock-on-remove

so either that policy was changed or the IT people at my government job lied to me. Both are equally likely