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Secret Data Loss 3: Break In at Hazel Blears' Office
So say the BBC saying a personal computer with files relating to defence, extremists and planning was stolen on Saturday. Referred to in the body of the story as "theft" the picture caption (pictured) upgrades it to burglary. Lib Dem Voice speculate wildly that the fact the files were on this computer must mean someone has broken some rules. Steady on now Mark Pack! The secrecy quotient of the files has not even been identified. They are unlikely to be eyes only material.
I'd be more certain that someone had broken some rules when they declared only £17 for a General Election campaign's telephone costs for example.
9 comments:
Blow me down with a feather, Mark Pack knocking Labour. I thought he was Labour's very bestest Tory-bashing useful-idiot stooge?
It might not be secret material, but it's government information and the rules on confidentiality and sensitive data have been broken in the most spectacular fashion.
I can't believe you're trying to deflect attention from how serious this is.
LFAT - I have no idea how serious this is, do you? The confidentiality quotient and even the subject matter is disputed is it not? This one is so serious that IMO it would not have scarcely made the news unless there had been the two train losses which also come in reducing seriousness.
Hundreds but hundreds of government computers and documents are lost or stolen every year. They get reported in splurges when there is a truly serious loss e.g. the "eyes only" stuff on the train to Surrey from Waterloo.
PS Press Associations this morning report:
The top civil servant at Communities and Local Government, Peter Housden, said in a statement: "It is clear that papers have been sent to Hazel Blears in a way that is not fully consistent with the departmental guidance."
However, he stressed the computer was password protected, insisting that "no damage had been done" because the documents were not "classified as secret or top secret".
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Let's not go OTT now LFAT. My querying of the reporting was in fact the difference between theft and burglary.
PPS: It was a break in. Here's Neal Keeling of the MEN:
Blears Computer Stolen
£17 for six weeks' campaign phone calls? What a lying bastard he must be.
She has broke the rules end of story.
Anyone want to buy a laptop by the way?
Can't you just email across the data and skip the damned thing?
Can you PROVE that I only declared £17 of telephone calls? It was nearer £18 I think you'll find. And that I made any other calls or incurred any other 'phone costs whatsoever?
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