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23.05.2009 - Another data incident in Great Britain
Army warns of extortion attempts
A data incident at the British army apparently has far greater dimensions than assumed at first. Not only the names and bank details of army personnel have vanished, but also very sensitive data from security checks. The army now warns of extortion attempts. About 500 people are affected.
The incident involves very personal information concerning members of the air force. This information includes details regarding drug abuse, criminal prosecution, debt size, state of health, extramarital affairs and visits to prostitutes. It was collected in the course of security checks.
The incident occurred already last fall. Back then, the Ministry of Defence only admitted the loss of computer hard drives with the names, addresses and bank details of several ten-thousand air force members. The details of the security checks were not mentioned.
Officer: Army data as important as the crown jewels
One of the victims, a former officer who had also been checked, investigated the affair and uncovered the whole truth. He told the BBC: “I only thought, not again. We are talking about the personal data of army members here; it should really be treated like the crown jewels when it comes to data privacy.”
The former officer who remains anonymous specifies the personal questions that were asked in the course of the security check: “They asked questions like: Is there anything unusual about your sex life, have you had affairs, used prostitutes, that sort of thing. If this information got into the wrong hands, then the people affected would be in danger.”
Air force warns in internal memo
In an internal memo, the Royal Air Force also warns its members that this information might be used for blackmail, for example by foreign intelligence services. It could also damage the reputation of the armed forces if details of the life of high-ranking air force officers became public. The Ministry of Defence affirms that all personal information is treated with the utmost care. All persons affected were offered counseling. There is no indication that any of the information was used for criminal purposes, the statement continues.
The hard drives disappeared from the office of an IT service provider managing the data storage for the Ministry of Defence. It was not made public whether the hard drives were stolen or lost. In any case, the data was not encrypted.
Not the first data scandal in Great Britain
In the last years, Great Britain has experienced several losses of data storage media with important and partly also with confidential information. For example, last year a memory stick with information about ten-thousands of prisoners was lost. Before that, two data storage devices with details about 25 million recipients of child benefits were already reported missing.
Not even local observers know why these embarrassing incidents happen again and again. Obviously, weaknesses in organizational processes are potentiated by the lack of awareness for the sensitivity of the data.
Source:www.tagesschau.de