Snafu of the Week: Classified flash drive left at party
October 1, 2008 by Shane BorerPosted in: Fighting off fraud, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest news & views, Tech failure
The floor of a night club is the last place you’d expect to find your department’s sensitive info …
An all-night party-goer discovered an abandoned USB flash drive on the floor of Newquay, England’s, “The Beach” nightclub. It contained training and troop movements for nearby military personnel. The clubber handed the portable device to a national newspaper, causing the Ministry of Defense (MoD) to launch into a full forensic examination over the loss or theft.
This isn’t the first incident of sensitive military info falling into the wrong hands — though it may be the first time it happened in a nightclub. More than 120 USB drives have been lost or stolen from MoD since 2004, most of which contained restricted or otherwise classified information.
The recent loss makes 26 disappearances this year alone. In August, a drive was lost that contained the personal data of all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales.
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Tags: Military, Ministry of Defense, Prisoners, USB drive
October 6th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Seems like the MoD should have figured out by now a more secure way to handle the USB drives if personnel need to carry them. One suggestion is sometype of GPS system, so the whereabouts of the USB drives can be monitored at all times.