I reckon its a farce. I wouldnt be surprised if an organised group (be they terrorists, criminals, political extremists) have infiltrated the government, HMAF and the police at various levels and are selling this stuff off. Then they set up some minor somebody to "loose" the data so everyone has someone to "blame" (and know the government will whitewash it as much as they can). Then when the information is found in the "enemys" hands its harder to find out who the 'mole' is or weather there even is a mole at all. All they know a laptop was officially 'lost' and some random Joe could have found it and posted it on some internet conspiracy site for all to see.
All public service departments and companys handling sensitive info should:
A) use encrypted remote desktop access only for working with sensitive files. Its quite possible these days. Its fast and secure enough when using X forwarding or VMware etc. No data like this should be stored locally anymore.
b) stop using such standard and easily breachable systems like windows. Gary McKinnon actually said that he was much more able to hack those US defence computers simply because they were windows based.
c)If data must be stored locally or on removable media then it should use a full filesystem encryption with no 'authority backdoors' just one key for the user and one for mission critical IT.
d)If data needs to be sent somewhere then it must be done over a private encrypted stream, NEVER in the mail.
e)When PCs are 'disposed' the harddisks should be either wiped to DOD5220M standard or melted down.
Especially PS and defense, after all its ALL our loss, not just theirs. Its a disgrace.
All public service departments and companys handling sensitive info should:
A) use encrypted remote desktop access only for working with sensitive files. Its quite possible these days. Its fast and secure enough when using X forwarding or VMware etc. No data like this should be stored locally anymore.
b) stop using such standard and easily breachable systems like windows. Gary McKinnon actually said that he was much more able to hack those US defence computers simply because they were windows based.
c)If data must be stored locally or on removable media then it should use a full filesystem encryption with no 'authority backdoors' just one key for the user and one for mission critical IT.
d)If data needs to be sent somewhere then it must be done over a private encrypted stream, NEVER in the mail.
e)When PCs are 'disposed' the harddisks should be either wiped to DOD5220M standard or melted down.
Especially PS and defense, after all its ALL our loss, not just theirs. Its a disgrace.