Your privacy means nothing to the government

November 02, 2008

Your privacy means nothing to the government

Maybe you're James Purnell leaving your open red box unattended on a train while you pop out to the end of the carriage to make phone calls. Never mind, your Department will play down those private documents you left behind and deny you broke guidelines even though you did.

They're less likely to cover for you if you're a civil servant. Lord Mandelson's Director of Corporate Services, a Mr Sachak, who runs the Queen's Award for Enterprise, read "restricted" emails on the train and even dozed off while they were on his screen. The Department for Business said:

This is a serious issue and should not have occurred. It was a careless mistake by the person concerned and we are investigating the circumstances.

Staff are being reminded of the department's stringent security rules and the importance of exercising caution when working remotely in public places.

But today's worst report is a breach by a contractor. Ministers have ordered an emergency shutdown of the Government computer Gateway, after a memory stick was found in a pub car park containing confidential passcodes to the online Government Gateway system.

For the past six years, reports the Mail, the Government Gateway has allowed members of the public and businesses to gain access to hundreds of services from 50 Whitehall departments, including self-assessment tax returns, VAT returns, pension entitlements and child benefit. This year 1.8million people have submitted their tax returns on the system.

The lost memory stick was found two weeks ago outside a Brewers Fayre chain pub in Cannock, Staffordshire, but the Department of Work and Pensions, which owns the Government Gateway, was made aware of its loss only last week when the 2in device was passed to this newspaper.

An expert who examined it for The Mail on Sunday said it contained confidential passwords, security software and the technical blueprint to the system known as the 'source code'. The memory stick is now in the hands of the police.

The DWP is insisting that the system's security has not been breached (my italics), but the paper was told that in the wrong hands the data on the memory stick could enable hackers to access personal details of the 12million people who have registered on the system, including their passwords.

Looks like the Information Commissioner's office may be busy tomorrow.

As for your own private data - government ID cards, anyone?