658 MoD laptops are stolen in four years; Breaches in security are condemned.Byline: James Tapsfield THE Ministry of Defence was facing fresh security questions yesterday after admitting 658 of its laptops had been stolen over the past four years-nearly double the figure previously claimed. The department also said that 26 portable memory sticks containing classified information had been either stolen or misplaced mis·place tr.v. mis·placed, mis·plac·ing, mis·plac·es 1. a. To put into a wrong place: misplace punctuation in a sentence. b. since January. The Lib Dems LIB DEM Liberal Democrat(s) (UK political party) condemned con·demn tr.v. con·demned, con·demn·ing, con·demns 1. To express strong disapproval of: condemned the needless waste of food. 2. the latest security breaches-which happened despite a desperate cross-Whitehall drive to tighten procedures-as evidence of "shocking incompetence in·com·pe·tence or in·com·pe·ten·cy n. 1. The quality of being incompetent or incapable of performing a function, as the failure of the cardiac valves to close properly. 2. ". However, the MoD insisted that its policies were "generally fit for purpose", and said all data losses were fully investigated. The new details were disclosed by ministers in response to questions tabled in Parliament. Previously the MoD had confessed to 347 laptops being stolen between 2004 and 2007. But Defence Secretary Des Browne was forced to issue revised figures after "anomalies in the reporting process" were discovered. The official total is now 658 laptops stolen, with another 89 lost. Just 32 have been recovered. In a separate response, ministers said that 131 of the department's USB memory See USB drive. sticks had been taken or misplaced since 2004. Some 26 of those went this year-including three which contained information classified as "secret" and 19 which were "restricted". Lib Dem frontbencher Sarah Teather Sarah Louise Teather (born 1 June 1974[1], London) is a British Liberal Democrat politician, Member of Parliament for Brent East, Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on said: "It seems that this Government simply cannot be trusted with keeping sensitive information safe. It is frightening to think that secret MoD information can be lost or stolen. How can they expect us to trust them to keep our personal information safe in their unnecessary and expensive ID card scheme?" A MoD spokeswoman for the department said: "Any loss of data is investigated fully. The recent report on data losses by Sir Edmund Burton found that MoD policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental are generally fit for purpose, but also identified a number of areas where MoD needs to do better in protecting personal data. "MoD has developed, and is now working through, an action plan to address all of the report's recommendations and bring the department's handling of personal data to an acceptable state." |
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