MoD loses a staggering 340 laptop computers in TWO YEARS...and most of them were not encrypted

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1296773/MoD-loses-staggering-340-laptop-computers-TWO-YEARS--encrypted.html

By Daily Mail Reporter
22nd July 2010

The Ministry of Defence has lost or had stolen 340 laptops worth more 
than £600,000 in the last two years, figures reveal today.

A total of 593 CDs, DVDs and floppy disks, 215 USB memory sticks, 96 
removable hard disk drives and 13 mobile phones have also disappeared 
from the department since the release of a scathing report into MoD data 
losses.

Only one in five of the hi-tech devices that disappeared was encrypted, 
leading security experts to criticise the 'cavalier attitude' to the 
protection of data.

The MoD had the worst record of 11 government departments surveyed in 
Freedom of Information requests made by technology consultants Lewis 
Communications.

In total the ministries reported the loss of 518 laptops, 131 
BlackBerrys or iPhones, 104 mobile devices and 932 electronic storage 
devices over the past two years, at an estimated cost to the taxpayer of 
£781,453.

[...]

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