Government security strategy sinking after Navy loss
By Davey Winder in Editorial
Posted in Data Protection, Blog, Security on
File under oops. Someone seems to have picked up a USB memory stick which was just laying about in a car park near the docks in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Having eventually been turned into the police it turns out the memory stick was packed full of highly confidential data such as nearly 40 pages of information relating to Royal Navy personnel and whole bunch more with restricted status that detailed naval operations and manoeuvres.
The Guardian reports that detectives from the Royal Navy Police Special Investigation Branch have been looking into the matter. They are thought to be undertaking a forensic examination of the device in order to determine if any data has been copied as well as for clues to the identity of the last person to have used, and presumably misplaced, the thing.
Now one security expert reckons it could force the UK Government into implementing new security practises at long last. Sean Glynn from Credant Technologies says that “it’s clear that the data genie is now well and truly out of the bottle” and warns that it is “time for the Government to move on from its best practice approach for its many Departments and Agencies on IT security, and make encryption of all private data mandatory.”
Glynn points out that it has been some two years now since the UK Government famously, or maybe that should be infamously, lost a couple of data disks which between them contained the personal and banking details of some 25 million UK residents who were claiming child benefit. “…things have still not improved” Glynn insists, adding “…attitudes towards data security must change and the only way to do this is to make data security mandatory in all Government departments and agencies”.
Certainly, given the dismal past recent history of this Government with regards to data security it needs to do something, and soon.
Rated: 100% (1 votes)
Loading ...Pingback by - December 2, 2009 on 4:02 pm
[…] USB memory stick containing sensitive Royal Navy data was found near the docks in Northern Ireland last week. […]
Comment by 6tricky9 - December 4, 2009 on 10:50 am
Even if data on a laptop, or a flash drive, is encrypted the person who comes into possession of the device has all the time in the world to decrypt it. Surely, the answer is to leave the data on the server and access it remotely if necessary.
Comment by Kim Spence-Jones - December 4, 2009 on 11:19 am
I have thought for a while now that the only way to get people to instinctively value the data on their USB sticks is to encase them in solid gold. Still worth far less than the data, but at least people would have an altered mindset.
Comment by FunnyDevil - January 16, 2010 on 2:33 pm
Pretty nice blog you’ve got here. Thank you for it. I like such themes and anything that is connected to them. I would like to read more soon.
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