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Yet MORE Data Lost!!!!

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VulcanB2 View Drop Down
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    Posted: 17 Sep 2008 at 8:17pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7621393.stm

Ouch

I'm out of words to describe "extreme incompetence and ineptitude".

Best regards,
Vulcan.

Ouch
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MartinW View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MartinW Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Sep 2008 at 8:59am

Gets worse doesn't it?

Is this a new and frightening trend, or simply the media now highlighting something that has in fact gone on for years? Either way, better training and security is required.
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VulcanB2 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote VulcanB2 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Sep 2008 at 2:16pm
Hi,

Given they're the government, they should have some very good encryption technologies at their disposal. Why aren't they using them?

Best regards,
Vulcan.
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MartinW View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MartinW Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Sep 2008 at 4:01pm
Beats me!
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Darren123 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Darren123 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Sep 2008 at 2:58pm
I worked for the Civil Service for nearly six years. Sadly, this doesn't surprise me at all.
 
 
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MartinW View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MartinW Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Sep 2008 at 8:24am
What's the cause Darren? Lack of training, lack of funding, the system?
 
Welcome to the forum by the way.Smile
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Darren123 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Darren123 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Sep 2008 at 10:49pm
Originally posted by MartinW MartinW wrote:

Welcome to the forum by the way.Smile
 
Thanks Martin
 
Originally posted by MartinW MartinW wrote:

What's the cause Darren? Lack of training, lack of funding, the system?
 
I would say that it's the very inefficient systems in place with perhaps a hint of the other two you mention. My old work colleagues and I always used to agree how if the civil service was a private firm, that it would of gone bust years ago. 
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Derek View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Derek Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Oct 2008 at 6:44am
It may be stating the beelding obvious but it seems that the problem can't be blamed on a sudden rash of ineptitude amongst civil servants or government personnel. It is purely the result of the data medium. A few years ago it would have been impossible for anyone to leave thousands of addresses on a train - unless they inadvertantly left a pallet on their seat. Now that you can get a few gigs of data on a DVD or memory stick a different approach is needed. I can see a 'radical' approach coming where 'sensitive' data can't be stored digitally and must be printed off and stored on paper with all copies logged - time to buy some shares in ring-binder companies.
 
Part of the reason we keep hearing about this is precisely because the civil service and the military are NOT run like a business - they are regularly audited and this sort of thing keeps coming to light. Agreed, some businesses are 'ISO audited' but that is a farce. With the increase in web trading thousands of businesses store huge amounts of data - credit cards, DOBs, addresses etc. etc. There is nothing stopping one of their employees downloading it on to a disc and taking it home, leaving it in a stolen car, losing it on the bus, selling it on ebay or whatever. The difference is that when it happens at Mr Bloggs' garden supplies webshop he is hardly likely to tell the audit commission. Likewise, most of his management team are hardly likely to 'whistle blow'.

Wait for it - there will be a new law soon forbidding anyone from doing anything daft with data. That will sort it all out - you'll see!
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MartinW View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MartinW Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Oct 2008 at 8:37am

My old work colleagues and I always used to agree how if the civil service was a private firm, that it would of gone bust years ago. 

 

I've heard the same thing many times at various levels, my wife works in local government. The ineptitude is quiet staggering at times, inefficiency id rife and dodgy procedures that no private company could survive.

 

A few years ago it would have been impossible for anyone to leave thousands of addresses on a train - unless they inadvertantly left a pallet on their seat. Now that you can get a few gigs of data on a DVD or memory stick a different approach is needed.

 

Very true, but CD's, DVD,s and memory sticks have been around for a long time now, certainly long enough to ensure that the proper procedures and encryption methods are used. They seem very slow to adapt to the technology.

 

Part of the reason we keep hearing about this is precisely because the civil service and the military are NOT run like a business - they are regularly audited and this sort of thing keeps coming to light.

 

True again, businesses are not run like the civil service, they are generally more efficient. They have to be, not perfection but certainly more efficient. Profit the prime motivator. Having a family member and friends in local government, I'm very aware of the ineptitude, ineptitude that would shock you, ineptitude that would cripple a business.

 
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Derek View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Derek Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Oct 2008 at 8:52am
I agree that profit is a prime motivator when it comes to efficiency - and that's precisely why most businesses are less lilkely to get stressed about wasting money on data protection. There is nothing efficient about having loads of forms in triplicate and multi-layered password protection on your database if it means that every time a customer rings up to check his order you have to tell him to write to you and wait three weeks for a reply Wink
 
Here's an example. When you book into many hotels you are required to give your name, address, nationality and car reg. It is usually scrawled on a card or bit of paper. It is probably entered on their PC and also held with your credit card details. What happens to that 'data'? Remember, these details are being held by the same 'efficient' organisation that employs chambermaids with dodgy work permits, that brought you tea instead of coffee and when you asked for the Times, left the Grauniad and rang you at 6am for your 7am alarm call.

We are obsessed with collecting data these days and whilst we focus on the obvious storehouses such as the DVLA and the Civil Service we seem to be relatively relaxed about how much is actually stored by rank amateurs.

You only have to look at how many commercial websites ignore/flout the rules on data capture and have the opt in/opt out rules asre about face in relation to the law.
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VulcanB2 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote VulcanB2 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Oct 2008 at 11:06pm
Hi,

A basic mistake is being made:

* PEOPLE ARE BEING ALLOWED TO LEAVE SECURE BUILDINGS WITH DATA.

Make it illegal to leave the building with the data, and you've stopped the problem. One or two records, OK, if you have to, but not 10,000 records. Stay late and work at the office if you need access.

Best regards,
Vulcan.
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