Time and time again we read about data losses and breaches. We read articles about hospitals losing private patient information or corporate giants misplacing unencrypted USB drives but aside from the “tut tut” head shake does the average Joe really worry about this?
Probably not.
Well what if I told you some of these data leaks cost you money.
Now I’ve got your attention.
It seems our very own Government is the biggest culprit of data storage equipment loss but it’s the average Joe tax payer that foots the bill.
According to figures, released by Lewis PR following a Freedom of Information request, between June 2008 and the end of May this year 340 laptops have been lost or stolen from Ministry of Defence staff, costing us a whopping £620,000.
A further 593 CDs, DVDs and floppy disks, 215 USB memory sticks, 96 hard-disk drives and 13 mobile phones also went missing.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, some of the stolen items weren’t encrypted so could be accessed by criminals.
Of 1,257 hi-tech items that disappeared from the MoD, a staggering 983 were not encrypted.
Yet only nine staff were disciplined over the losses.
The statistics also detailed a further 10 Governmental departments that incurred major data losses. In fact more than 500 laptops were lost or stolen from 11 UK Whitehall departments during this period.
These combined losses cost the tax payer approximately £777,854.29 in the last two years.
Only 17 staff members were disciplined over these incidents.
These are worrying statistics indeed particularly as many of the lost items were Blackberries, USB sticks and mobile phones.
In these days of heightened global security how can this amount of data be unencrypted?
How can staff continue to be so lax with our private information?
If they’re that careless about their current equipment containing sensitive data, do they have a strictly audited security disposal policy for data destruction of these portable storage devices at their normal end-of-life? Or do they just leave them lying around?
How long will the taxpayer be expected to pay for these mistakes?
I don’t know about the average Joe but I would rather have the money in my pocket…wouldn’t you?
Excellent article. You have quoted some big numbers and that’s only one central government department, how many others are there with similar losses??!!