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Ministers have been forced to order an emergency shutdown of a key Government computer system to protect millions of people’s private details. The action was taken after a memory stick was found in a pub car park containing confidential passcodes to the online Government Gateway system, which covers everything from tax returns to parking tickets.
An urgent investigation is now under way into how the stick, belonging to the company which runs the flagship system, came to be lost.
Users trying to log on to the site yesterday were met by the message: ‘The Government Gateway is temporarily offline. We apologise for any inconvenience. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.’
This year alone, 1.8 million people have submitted their tax returns on the system.
Members of the public registering for the service have to provide their personal details, which can include names, addresses, wages, National Insurance numbers and credit card details.
It’s not just that the British Government’s security protocols were obviously designed by the Looney Party. They’ve made it clear they can screw up just about anything – and will.
Incompetence leaves every possible door open for screw-ups.
No worries. It would have taken at least 32 GB to have held everybody’s vital data. The chances your information was not leaked is at least 8:1.
How manifestly indicative of chronic largess in the Public Service.
#2 – Yeah, no shit.
I like the way the article says “in the wrong hands the data on the memory stick could enable hackers to access personal details of the 12million people who have registered on the system, including their passwords.” I mean, its not really hacking if you have all the passwords, is it?
Personally, I blame the system admins for obviously giving an idiot the correct passwords…. now if BOFH was in charge of the government systems….
Keep in mind that the data of the 12 mio people is not on that usb stick but on a government server.
The usb stick contained the source code of the internet portal (an 18 mio pounds piece of software) and a couple of passwords and some security related stuff.
Its a good thing that Big Brother turned out to be Benny Hill. Que music.
#4
Yeah, notice also the snark:
The “urgent investigation” is most concerned with “How the stick [got] lost.”
Never mind how the data was compromised in the first place.
It’s just a little scary that horrendous amounts of information can be carried around in one idiot’s pocket.
No… it’s a lot scary.
This is a breach of government procedure, in so many different ways. One has to wonder whether it was deliberate or accidental. The British government are selling off anything that looks valuable, and commercializing anything that can make a profit. As we all know, the management of information is as profitable as the ownership of it.
They created a backup of the data they transmitted wirelessly to a mobile phone, how careless to loose the backup device!!!
Jeeeez!
#1,
the problem here is that This has happened TO MANY times in recent history..
Much has been posted here and In cagematch.
At this time, I would think about 2/3’s of ALL personal data the gov has is LOST to the first person to pick up the Lost devices.
It was even posted here that they lost MOST of the military personnel data, INCLUDING CC card data for them.
THINK about it. how many times do they need to LOOSE the data, to LOOSe it all…
Not to worry… nothing they couldn’t get from FaceBook in the first place…
Geez you guys!
loose is an adjective. “The wild animal is loose.”
lose is a verb. “Don’t lose your car keys.”
This blog is super buggy. I can never read the articles in my RSS feeds and have to click through. And then once I click through, I have to click on the headline again to get to the actual article. But on this article, clicking the headline does nothing! How am I supposed to read your blog, John?? 🙁
“USB key with personal data of 12 million is found in pub parking lot”
The headline is false.
Pretty crappy reporting, or I should say, editing.
The problem isn’t that they blew it once. The guy was right who said that if they blow it enough times every piece of data they have is going to be on the open market.
They want to know everything then they can’t keep any of it safe.
#16, peedrool,
No, you haven’t a clue.
*
I’m wondering, which bright mind put this onto a memory stick? If this information is so valuable, then why not something that fits into a brief case or encrypted on a laptop.
Quite rightly at least one head should roll.
This does leave the question, what are we going to do now that so much information can be stored on such a small media?
# 19 jescott418 said,
This does leave the question, what are we going to do now that so much information can be stored on such a small media?
Do you think the actual data of those 12 million people was on the USB device?
So… can I have it back?
I sense the government was less worried with the loss of peoples’ personal info, than they were with the loss of all that lovely tax money and parking ticket revenue. These free world governments act so worried about terrorists, when they are self-terrorizing by their own stupidity. They should be as diligent against such preventable screwups, as they are against all manner of terrorist plots. But I guess that keeping their own noses clean, isn’t as sexy as foiling the bad guys.
Now you can appreciate why some people thought the stockpiling of so many domestic nukes, was as dangerous as having WW3 threatened by some foreign power. We could just as easily annihilate ourselves, as we can lose all our sensitive tax data, or dispense the wrong medications. Hardly anyone cares to check for careless mistakes, or admit to them. From Heads of State, on down the line. Civilian or Military. Only the lowly taxpayers suffer.