Government loses 15m people's personal data

[nichomach]

Call me cynical here, but I'd be very surprised if this wasn't arranged before hand

OK....you see that cynic...that's you, that is... Seriously though, he's doing the equivalent of working out his notice period.

[MD]

I tell you what i would love to find out just who is going to pay this £20,000 reward they are offering for the return of the discs now, Taxpayers again I presume....

Disgusting.

[santa claus]

The Richard Dimbleby lecture last night was presented by gene pioneer Dr. J. Craig Venter. Dr Venter is a principal scientist in the decoding of the human genome and his lecture explained that his team is about to create the first artificial life form on Earth. The genome code will be created on computer and then introduced to bacteria at chromosomatic level where it subdues its host.

The relevance to this thread? The loss of names, addresses and numbers on a couple of CD's ain't so bad. You can be cloned and your entire identity replicated artificially.

Ostensibly, the research is designed to create a life form that will use the abundance of carbon on this planet to create new fuels in a sustainable way and help toward the greenhouse effect. But the options are endless. Can't see that we should worry too much about the lost disks.

Hope this hasn't bored you guyz too much

[mycarsavw]

Woo, we got our letter.

Everything is fine now, they said sorry

[med2003]

BBC NEWS | UK | Civil servants on 48-hour strike

Our personal info's safe for 48 hours at least.

[iranu]

The problem of data disks being lost in the post is widespread.

Housing benefit details latest to be lost - Telegraph
More confidential data missing, MPs told - Telegraph

I get the impression that these disks are being produced and posted all over the place and when they don't turn up the organisation is just asked to post them again. No one seems to bothered that these things go missing regularly.

[G4Z]

This £20k reward is a bit of a jape isn't it?

Reeks of desperation, like it even matters now if somebody returns the discs. They could have been copied a million times in the time they have been missing. Its just more handwaving so that your average voter does not connect the dots with regard to how incompetent and clueless these idiots in charge really are. To be honest I would like to see a nice big clearout of government and senior civil servants get 50% of these old know nothing codgers out and get some younger poeple in! Would be great if there was any chance of it in our broken 'democracy'.

[acrobat]

If you got rid of the clueless gits though, everywhere would be empty, besides a couple of cleaners quietly dusting all the vacant seats.

[chrestomanci]

This £20k reward is a bit of a jape isn't it?

I think the reward is to encourage the civil servants to look through the piles of stuff in their desks, especially any miss-delivered mail that might be lying around in case they find the discs. Obviously it is fairly unlikely that a member of the public will find discs, and if they do, it would be worth a lot more from criminals, or even newspapers if that member of the public was dishonest.

Reeks of desperation, like it even matters now if somebody returns the discs. They could have been copied a million times in the time they have been missing. Its just more handwaving so that your average voter does not connect the dots with regard to how incompetent and clueless these idiots in charge really are. To be honest I would like to see a nice big clearout of government and senior civil servants get 50% of these old know nothing codgers out and get some younger people in! Would be great if there was any chance of it in our broken 'democracy'.

I agree that the civil service could do with a clearout, but I doubt that the problem is with 'old codgers'. The problem is two fold. Firstly that they system was not followed, and I would say junior people are much more likely to break the system to get stuff done if they can, and secondly that the computer system allowed that much data out to a junior member of staff.

I read in the newspaper on Monday, that the leaked data includes both old an new details for people in witness protection. If that data was leaked to criminals, then people will die. According to standard classification rules, that means the data should be classified as Top Secret, and should have been handled appropriately. (safes, armed guards, and secure transport). If someone experienced had been in charge they would have known that, but more importantly would have had the clout to make sure that proper document handling rules where imposed and followed.