Sunk Without Trace: Royal Navy Lose Data Of 600,000 Persons
WEST Midlands police are looking at the theft of a laptop from a Royal Navy officer. On it were the details of 600,000 people.
No panic. No need. Chances are that your details have already been lost or stolen. Although, granted, this will provide data thieves with a second piece of identification.
In November last, HM Revenue and Customs managed to lose two unregistered and unencrypted discs being sent to the National Audit Office. The disc held the details of 25million people.
Incredible. Like you we marvelled at how so much information could be contained on just two discs. Technology moves on. In the 1980s, say, the HMRC would have lost 100-odd discs, the number falling in 1990s to five or six discs, possibly in a single commemorative box set.
Now just two discs. Where we go from here can only be guessed at but there is every chance the names, address and favourite colour of everyone in the world can be printed on a grain of sand. And then lost.
As for the stolen laptop, it contained details of anyone who has expressed an interest in, or joined, the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and the RAF.
“The information held is not the same for every individual,” says the MoD. “In some cases, for casual enquiries, the record is no more than a name. But for those who progressed as far as submitting an application to join the Forces, extensive personal data may be held, including passport details, National Insurance numbers, drivers’ licence details, family details, doctors’ addresses and National Health Service numbers.”
Nick Harvey, Lib Dem defence spokesman, says: “If anybody is entertaining lingering support for the idea… surely this would worry anybody into realising that you cannot trust any system you invent to store this much data in one place.”
Better, perhaps, for each any everyone one of us to commit our personal data to memory and for backup tell Andi Bell, The amazing memory man, or a white elephant…
Posted: 18th, January 2008 | In: Politicians Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
