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Thief Took British Defense Minister's Laptop
From: William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>
Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2000 19:28:18 -0500
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGIY61C129C.html Jun 3, 2000 - 10:03 PM LONDON (AP) - A thief stole the laptop computer of the government minister in charge of Britain's nuclear policy, but it did not contain defense information, the Ministry of Defense said Saturday. The ministry was responding to a report in the Sunday People tabloid that the computer had been stolen. The incident March 25 was one of a series of laptop losses from government and military officials that prompted a review of security procedures. In this case, the thief smashed a window at the home of armed forces minister John Spellar in Bromley, southern England, and took the laptop but did not touch the two red official government boxes in the house that contained defense information. "No attempt was made to open or remove them," a ministry spokesman said on customary terms of anonymity. The computer held only information about the legislator's electoral constituency. Spellar is in charge of nuclear policy and has responsibility for the military's role in Northern Ireland, and defense intelligence operations. In early March, a laptop containing training information for MI6, the spy agency responsible for foreign intelligence, was lost by an intelligence officer and recovered by police two weeks later. The same month, a second laptop with classified material on Northern Ireland was snatched from a security service officer at London's Paddington Station when the officer put it down to buy a train ticket. In early May, a naval officer lost his computer and his personal luggage after boarding a train at Paddington station. It did not contain classified information, the spokesman said. *-------------------------------------------------* "Communications without intelligence is noise; Intelligence without communications is irrelevant." Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC --------------------------------------------------- C4I Secure Solutions http://www.c4i.org *-------------------------------------------------* ISN is sponsored by SecurityFocus.com --- To unsubscribe email LISTSERV () SecurityFocus com with a message body of "SIGNOFF ISN".
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- Thief Took British Defense Minister's Laptop William Knowles (Jun 03)