The 10 worst security gaffes

Posted on 17 Jun 2008 at 10:22

From battle plans left in the back of hire cars to Trojans on a TomTom, Davey Winder counts down the ten worst IT security blunders.

The trouble with security is that it isn't only the good guys versus the bad guys - there are any number of idiots in between to confuse the issue and make defending your data that much trickier.

Serious IT security breaches have been an ongoing problem for years, and more often than not they're helped along by people who simply haven't taken security seriously enough. In this feature, we'll name and shame them by revealing our top ten security gaffes, detailing exactly what went horribly wrong and why.

We've ranked our countdown of blunders using a highly scientific, meticulously calculated formula that considers the seriousness of the offence, the rank stupidity of the individual or company involved and how many people were affected by each particular bout of plonkerishness. We then extrapolate these figures through our top secret Excel formula to arrive at an official Overall Gaffe Rating.

So read on to find out who made it into our top ten, and feel free to recommend any alternatives by emailing letters@pcpro.co.uk.

10. Jeremy Clarkson gets it very wrong

9. Too much information, commissioner

8. TomTom takes a wrong turn

7. Expert, secure thy self

6. Six-year-old girl hacks Parliament

5. When spear phishers strike

4. Most wanted: FBI distributes worm

3. The litany of lost laptops

2. Hackers taking it to the TK Maxx

1. Disappearing disc act

Author: Davey Winder