MoD 'loses 600 laptops'

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1757000/1757792.stm

Sunday, 13 January, 2002

Nearly 600 laptop computers have been stolen or lost from the UK's
Ministry of Defence (MoD), it has emerged.

Figures obtained by Liberal Democrat MP Paul Burstow revealed that a
total of 1,354 government-owned computers had gone missing over the
past five years.

> From the MoD, 594 laptops have gone missing; a further 419 have
disappeared from the Department for Work and Pensions; and 115 from
the Department for International Development.

Some computers were detailed as stolen while others had simply been
"lost", Mr Burstow said.

Mr Burstow's figures also revealed that hackers had illegally accessed
the MoD's computer system 27 times since 1999, the Mail on Sunday
reported.

A spokesman for the MoD said: "We are not prepared to discuss the
security arrangements of theft of laptops."

He added: "Once a laptop is stolen or goes missing, the civilian
police and the appropriate MoD authorities are informed immediately."

He also pointed out that "not all laptops contain classified
information".

Mr Burstow, MP for Sutton and Cheam, collated the figures after
tabling a series of written Parliamentary questions. He said the
figures could be even greater, because they had been volunteered by
departments.

"It shows that some departments seem to be particularly vulnerable to
this sort of theft taking place," Mr Burstow said.

He said the figures revealed a number of the perpetrators were
departmental staff.

"These departments have potentially sensitive intelligence
information, and I think more could be done to prevent this happening.

"We want departments to look at the procedures they have to make sure
that staff are more careful with the equipment they are borrowing and
using."

A total of 79 laptops were taken from the Department of Trade and
Industry, 77 from the Lord Chancellor's Department, 43 from the
Cabinet Office, 14 from the Treasury and three from the Northern
Ireland Office.

As well as the MoD reporting 27 hacking events, 19 such events were
also reported at the Lord Chancellor's Department, five at the Foreign
Office, three at the Home Office, and four at the Northern Ireland
Office. All these events took place in the last three years.

The security of government laptops hit the headlines in 2000 when
transport minister John Spellar, then armed forces minister, had his
stolen from his home.

A few months previously, an MI6 officer left his laptop in a taxi
after a night's drinking in a tapas bar in Vauxhall, south London.

Another was snatched when an MI5 officer put it down to buy a ticket
at a station. That one was later handed back to the Ministry of
Defence after being recovered by a newspaper.




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