UK Intel Agency's Missing Laptops Might Contain Sensitive Data 51
superapecommando writes "GCHQ lost 35 laptops in one year, potentially containing highly sensitive data. The UK's electronic spy centre was today lambasted by MPs for having a 'cavalier' attitude to data security. The centre is responsible for tracking the electronic communications of terrorists. In a new report, the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee expressed concern that GCHQ appeared to be entirely unaware whether or not the computers, lost in 2008, contained top secret information on people posing an imminent security threat to the country."
Re:Highly sensitive data? (Score:4, Informative)
Well, surely it has been appropriately encrypted with strong encryption and protected with a strong password. After all, those people are not completely incompetent, are they?
Well, GCHQ workers *invented* public key encryption, so they are obviously not all completely incompetent. Big organisations lose laptops. It's more that they don't have the paperwork to prove nothing secret hit these machines. It's sloppy but hardly unexpected.