Government unaware of "power of technology"

 

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By Nicole Kobie

Posted on 21 Jan 2008 at 12:00

The Information Commissioner has called on the government to finally learn to protect people's private data after its latest breach.

The incident saw a laptop containing the records of 600,000 armed forces applicants stolen from a Royal Navy officer on 9 January in Birmingham.

For some records, the data held was no more than a name, but others included passport details, drivers' licence numbers and other personal information - including bank details on 3,500 people.

"This is a highly disturbing incident," says Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner. "Yet another stark illustration of the potency of personal information in a database world. I don't think people across the public sector have fully woken up even now to the power of technology."

Data protection rethink

Secretary of State Des Browne will be giving a statement regarding the incident in Parliament this afternoon. Thomas says he hopes Browne will announce a full investigation with a wide remit.

"Data protection involves serious questions about why is so much information being collected and held in the first place, and how long is it being held for, and why is it being allowed out of the office if you like, onto a laptop. And only then do you get onto the questions about was it properly encrypted, were adequate security measures taken with the laptop," Thomas says.

"Look at it this way: would any organisation allow £600,000 out of the office, or to be left in a car overnight? You would take very strong precautions with cash, you would take strong precautions with official secrets, with military secrets, why is personal information not being taken with the same degree of seriousness?"