Government unaware of "power of technology"

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The information commissioner has called on the government to finally learn to protect people's private data after news broke over the weekend of a laptop lost by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) containing details of some 600,000 people.

According to the MoD, a laptop containing details of people who had applied to the Navy, Marines or Air Force was stolen from a Royal Navy officer on 9 January in Birmingham. Details of the loss have only emerged now.

For some records, the data held was no more than a name, but others included passport details, drivers' licence numbers and other personal information - including bank details on 3,500 people.

Speaking on the BBC's Today Programme this morning, Richard Thomas, the information commissioner said: "This is a highly disturbing incident. Yet another stark illustration of the potency of personal information in a database world."

The MoD incident follows previous data breaches by HM Revenue and Customs, among others, last year. "I don't think people across the public sector have fully woken up even now to the power of technology," he said.

Secretary of State Des Browne will be giving a statement regarding the incident in Parliament at 3:30 pm this afternoon. Thomas said he hoped Browne would announce a full investigation with a wide remit and stressed that this incident is not just about security.

"Data protection involves serious questions about why is so much information being collected and held in the first place, and how long is it being held for, and why is it being allowed out of the office if you like, onto a laptop. And only then do you get onto the questions about was it properly encrypted, were adequate security measures taken with the laptop," Thomas said.

"In this situation we've got military personnel, or people who applied or who are expressing an interest in joining the armed forces. There may be risks in terms of security," he said. "There are also risks in terms of their own privacy. Do they want their current employers or their families or their girlfriends to know that they're thinking of applying to the armed forces?"

Thomas added there may be financial consequences as well, for those whose bank details were on the laptop.

He continued: "Look at it this way: would any organisation allow £600,000 out of the office, or to be left in a car overnight? You would take very strong precautions with cash, you would take strong precautions with official secrets, with military secrets, why is personal information not being taken with the same degree of seriousness."

Thomas called for a full change in how data protection is handled by the government, including systems, training and awareness. "People have got to understand the consequences. They've got to ask themselves questions about the sensitivity of the data which they're holding, the consequences if it gets lost," he said.

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