In UK, 12M Taxpayers Lost With USB Stick 258
An anonymous reader tips a piece from the UK's Daily Mail that recounts another sad tale of the careless loss of massive amounts of private user data. "Ministers have been forced to order an emergency shutdown of a key Government computer system to protect millions of people's private details. The action was taken after a memory stick was found in a pub car park containing confidential passcodes to the online Government Gateway system, which covers everything from tax returns to parking tickets. An urgent investigation is now under way into how the stick, belonging to the company which runs the flagship system, came to be lost."
Do we even need another one of these stories? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:How it came to be lost? (Score:3, Funny)
I love the little quote marks around "source code". Oh my god, it's the Source Code! Anyway... from that, I daresay that the USB stick wasn't meant to provide access to the database. Probably more as a copy of the gateway system software.
This kind of careless attitude towards security wouldn't fly in the corporate world. It's only because it's the government doing it that security is so lax.
More from TFA:
Hmmm.
12M Taxpayers Lost? (Score:5, Funny)
Damn...that's quite a lot of people to go missing.
UK Government loses all data on everyone (Score:5, Funny)
Annual reports from Whitehall departments show that the government has lost all data it ever held on anyone. [today.com]
Losses have occurred through couriered unencrypted disks, misplaced memory sticks, lost laptops, briefcases left on trains and files falling down the side of the tea machine. "The real scandal is that a train was running for them to lose a case on," said a source whose name has been lost.
Treasury minister Jane Kennedy said the HM Revenue and Customs breaches did not necessarily result in data losses, or at least any that they have records of. HMRC said it takes data losses and security breaches "very seriously" and thoroughly investigates any breach that it does not lose track of.
Information Commissioner Richard Thomas has served enforcement notices on various departments for their data losses, but the departments in question could not find their office addresses to accept the notices. They noted, however, that Mr Thomas' call was very important to them, and that he had been placed in a queue.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith reassured citizens that plans for an all-encompassing ID card linked to biometric passports and a universal medical record with the NHS would not change because of these losses. "We won't even be thinking about them."
Re:How it came to be lost? (Score:3, Funny)
Translation: MS Word file was password protected.
Re:How it came to be lost? (Score:3, Funny)
In UK, 12M Taxpayers Lost With USB Stick
Presumably the rest of the population are lost without one.
Yes, but the government will not accept defeat! (Score:2, Funny)
Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell leaves red box secrets on train [mirror.co.uk]
Interesting things to note:
Re:Same old same old... (Score:5, Funny)
Well, this is why the British government wanted to increase the terrorist detention limit to 42 days; to make sure they had enough time to gather all the information about a suspect.
They just didn't explain that most of those 42 days would be working out what bloody train they'd left their details on.
See, this is why I don't do my taxes.*
* yes, of course I do, I just do them on paper. it's actually a shorter form iirc.
Re:12M Taxpayers Lost? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Forget how it was lost. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:it's the daily mail - probably rubbish (Score:5, Funny)
"If you can get past the bile, hate, bias, bitterness and sensationalism, ask youself: does this publication actually have any credibility?"
Once you get past all that, there's no content left in the Daily Mail, so its credibility or otherwise is moot.
Re:How it came to be lost? (Score:5, Funny)
Of course that's very secure. It means that anybody who loses their password is completely unable to log in ever again. That's possibly the most secure way of handling things.
My only complaint is that they allow users to log in in the first place. Perhaps they could try encasing all the input devices and CPUs in some sort of rigid plastic case. Or better yet fill the power connections with some sort of epoxy.
Re:Same old same old... (Score:3, Funny)
in the UK it's actually news when a murder happens. In the US it's only news if the victim is white
The US has only about 3 times the murder rate of the UK (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_percap-crime-murders-per-capita) While that's a lot worse, it's not enough to justify such a holier-than-thou attitude.
Re:How it came to be lost? (Score:0, Funny)
Hmmm
1) locate torch and pitchfork
2) find the right daniel: http://www.google.is/search?q=Daniel+Harrington+home+address&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a [google.is]
3) ????
4) Lynch!