Britannia Radio

Nothing's safe !
No information of any kind given to the government is safe. The list
of ‘data loss’ catastrophes is so long that thgere must be no secrets
left at all. Even departments that should be ultra secure like the
Ministry of Defence are no better. Here it is home security that is
at risk.

But nobody appears ever to be sacked - for it should be a sacking
offence. There is no discipline and these losses are merely regarded
as a minor inconvenience.

For this reason I refuse ever to have ‘loyalty’ cards from any store
and indeed am not in the last census because I thought it was
intrusive.

And they want to force us to have ID cards so everything can be lost
in one simple operation. It will cut down the number of press
reports, I suppose!

xxxxxxxxxx cs

THE TIMES 22.8.08
'Massive failure' over data loss

The information contained on a memory stick was not encrypted
Ministers have been accused of a "massive failure of duty" after
thousands of criminals' details, stored on a computer memory stick,
were lost.

The Tories say the Home Office appears "incapable" of keeping data
secure and criminals may seek compensation.

Details of 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales were lost by private
firm PA Consulting. The Home Office said a full investigation was
being conducted.

The information commissioner's office described it as "deeply
worrying".

PA Consulting has searched its premises and looked at CCTV recordings
in an attempt to recover the missing memory stick - a commonly used
portable storage device for computer files. It is not clear how it
came to be lost.

'Horrified'
The missing device includes un-encrypted details [Why ‘unecrypted’? -
cs] about 10,000 prolific offenders.

It also includes the including names, dates of births and some
release date of all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales - and a
further 33,000 records from the police national computer.

There are fears offenders could now sue the Home Office over the loss
of the data.

Nov 2007: 25m people's child benefit details, held on two discs
Dec 2007: 7,685 Northern Ireland drivers' details
Dec 2007: 3m learner drivers' details lost in US
Jan 2008: 600,000 people's details lost on Navy officer's stolen laptop
June 2008: Six laptops holding 20,000 patients' details stolen from
hospital
July 2008: MoD reveals 658 laptops stolen in four years

PA Consulting was handed data as part of a research project on
tracking offenders through the criminal justice system.

A Home Office spokesman said the data had been "held in a secure
format on site and downloaded onto a memory stick for processing -
which has since been lost".

Government departments were ordered to tighten up their security
procedures after the loss of two discs containing personal details of
every child benefit claimant in November.

But shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said the latest loss of data
showed the Home Office was "entirely incapable of keeping it secure".

'Rash of losses'
And he said there was a serious risk that if criminals' details were
found by a third party, they could sue the government for compensation.
"It is ultimately the Home Office's responsibility to maintain the
security of this material," he added.


PA Consulting is one of the companies that has been involved in
developing the government's controversial ID card scheme - opposed by
the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said: "The government will no doubt seek to
blame private contractors, but the rash of data losses over the last
two years confirm that there is something much more worrying at
stake: this government cannot keep any information safe."

David Smith, Deputy Commissioner in the Information Commissioner's
Office, said the latest loss showed that personal information could
be a "toxic liability" if not handled properly.
"It is deeply worrying that after a number of major data losses and
the publication of two government reports on high profile breaches of
the Data Protection Act, more personal information has been reported
lost," he said.

Adequate safeguards
He said his office would decide "what further action may be
appropriate" once it saw a copy of the report on the internal
investigation. [THAT’LL BE - WHEN ? -cs]

Labour MP and chairman of the home affairs select committee Keith Vaz
told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he hoped the government had put
adequate safeguards in place.

"If you hand out memory sticks almost like confetti to companies and
ask them to do research for you, then you have to be absolutely
certain... that the company concerned has put in practice procedures
which will be just as robust as the procedures that I hope the
government has followed," he said.

A spokesman for PA Consulting refused to comment on the data loss.

A Home Office spokesman said: "A full investigation is being
conducted. Police and the Information Commissioner have been informed."

Earlier this month the BBC apologised after a memory stick containing
the personal details of hundreds of children who had applied to take
part in a TV show was stolen from a vehicle.

On Tuesday, a BBC analysis found sensitive data potentially affecting
more than four million people had been lost by government departments
in the year to April.