Computer Security

So again we have a loss of data from a government source.

So far, we know that this Government has lost approx. 20 million NI Numbers -- then sent out an apology to everyone WITH the persons NI Number on the letter

Then a laptop with names of people thinking of joining the Armed Services went missingm just a paltry 20,000 names on that, but going back FIVE years

Now Hazel Blears loses a laptop with data on it THAT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN RELEASED.

I work in the IT area, where are the Controls? Where are the Checks? Is this a sign that Whitehall isn't just leaky, it's totally porous. I read a few years ago that the RAF were having nightmares after an upgrade to Windows XP due to it's USB friendly setup.

Why on earth are our armed services using Windows?
I wonder what the Licensing costs are per year

As for the NI number loss, outsourcing always appears to give an immediate improvement to the bottom line, but the Service Level Agreements between the Government and it's suppliers probably mean that a simple query on the Database would cost in excess of £10,000, as it almost certainly would not be covered by the SLA. This means that a database query that would take a Professional about 30 minutes to design and execute ( and would therefore cost about £20) costs about 5,000% more than it otherwise would have.

So much for saving on the bottom line