Close Topic Options

Royal Navy Officer Losses Critical Info

Royal Navy Officer Losses Critical Info

A laptop stolen from a Royal Navy officer in Birmingham held personal details relating to 600,000 people, the Ministry of Defence says.
Ref. BBC

Info Critical Losses Officer Navy Royal

There are two things I do not understand about these incidents:

1. At the level of Royal Navy Officer you would think that your laptop would contain some sort of tracking device so that if it happened then it could be quickly recovered.

2. What ever happened to encryption technology? I use all my data on mounted encrypted drives, that way if anything is stolen I can rest assured that none of my data will be snooped for at least the next 20-50 years, and by that time the data will most likely be worthless.

Royal Navy Officer Losses Critical Info History & Civil Business Politics

Firstly, let me attempt to answer the point you made regarding the fact that it would be common sense for RN Officers to use specially adapted laptops. From my experience (my whole response is based on personal experience, things may well vary in different situations), it is a very rare occurance for the RN to issue laptops to anybody within the service, be them ratings or Officers. Most ICT work required in the RN can be done on the ship's/unit's/base's computers, and any work that does need to be done on a laptop (a couple but not many seem to be issued) can usually be done in the work environment without having to take the machines home. The problem therefore doesn't really lie in the need for laptop security, because this is a very rare situation where work data was taken home on a laptop.

As far as I can see, the most concerning points are:

1) Why was the data left unsupervised in a car?
2) Why was such sensitive data permitted to be taken home?
3) Why did such sensitive data need to be stored on a laptop?
4) (As mentioned by JB) Why was the data not encrypted.

The most mysterious of these points in my opinion is point 3. It seems most odd that data (including bank data) was stored on a laptop in this manner, as the Armed Forces (all branches) have a specific system in place for the storing of administrative details, so it seems unnecessary to store the data on a laptop.

As for pinning the blame, we live in a blame-culture society, where everyone instantly looks for someone to blame. I don't think the Officer should instantly be blamed (remember that if anyone is a criminal, it is the thief) questions need to be asked into the reasons why the situation occured, and once the facts have all been established, then someone can be held responsible.

Edited: Ant on 19th Jan, 2008 - 12:19am

Info Critical Losses Officer Navy Royal

I can see a need to take data home, however, the data should be encrypted in such a way that no one - and I mean no one can access it but the person authorized. Thus, stolen or not it is no longer an issue.

This is not about blame (although it can be and should be since anytime you are carrying personal data you should assume responsibility that there are uynauthorized people who may try to access it), but about how data is kept and carried.

This is not new, we have Discussed this in other places in the Community - similar situation - similar circumstance - laptop stolen. Given that it seems to be a common occurrence now to lose thousands of crucial data entries one need to understand that having security necessary in this event should be as second nature as having a firewall or virus software on your computer.

Info Critical Losses Officer Navy Royal

I agree with you that where data must be taken home, it should be encrypted and secure, however I fail to see, in this RN context, why this data was ever needed to be taken home. I am assuming that this man worked at the Armed Forces Careers Office (AFCO) given the data contained on his laptop, however of all the AFCO RN desk staff I have met, none of them have ever had to take the data home from work with them; there just hasn't generally been a need.

As for the technology, to destroy the data or make it un-readable once it has been stolen, this is a good idea, and I guess in hindsight, Admiralty will probably end up looking at such ideas.

Royal Navy Officer Losses Critical Info

Maybe he wanted to keep track of all his girlfriends and then some? Seriously though laptop data should be temporary at best and never anything critical not only because of theft, but laptops are not one of the most reliable pieces of hardware out there.