Fran's Blog

I’ve just read this: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/02/uk_eu_data_menace/. In a nutshell, it is about a UK government system, which holds all kinds of information about us, being shut down because of a security alert.

This time it isn’t just for UK residents, it’s for residents in the European mainland too. The best part about this quaint story is that it wasn’t that the computer was hacked, that someone broke into the office Mission Impossible style. No, some employee had the key codes on a USB disc and lost it in a pub car park!

I’m still sure there are government offices which send private data by email. Fault of computers? No. Fault of some ignorant government worker? Yes. I still see people hesitant to buy something or sign up to anything online because they are afraid their credit card details or some such may get stolen. Speaking to an Amazon employee at a conference a couple of months ago, she said “we do take security very seriously because we all know that if there is one leak in our system, we’re probably finished”. And I believe her. For Google and Amazon, getting security right is paramount. I doubt they even allow anyone to carry something which would jeopardise the security of the company (of course, i do assume). It’s encrypted to the hilt. Their jobs depend on it.

So, my online data, which really doesn’t have that much about me remains pretty secure on a server, encrypted in a vault somewhere, yet access to the astounding amount of detail the government keeps is dropped in a pub car park. Hell, agents from MI5 have lost laptops with security data on tubes in the past! No, I’m not afraid of my online data, but I am scared crapless by what hapless officials do with the other personal data.