Way wayyyy OT - guess the subject.....

Incompetent Joke Bungling Criminal Negligent

25 million Farce C*nts Unfit

Bzzt!

It's not Gordon and the Goonies, it's the civil service, boot labour out and put the tories in but the civil service remains. The rules they are supposed to comply with have been in place across many governments and are stupid, for example you can post a CD containing

25 million peoples' personal details as long as you put it inside two envelopes and send it via registered post. No need to protect it in any other way.... The only thing the civil service did wrong was that instead of posting it via registered post, they used a courier!

The daft thing is that if you were to suggest encrypting the data, unless the encryption product is on the approved list of vendors and version numbers of software that have been inspected, then it'll be regarded as safer to send the CD unencrypted than it will be to send it encrypted. You can't just download PGP and encrypt the data as PGP hasn't been inspected so just put it on an unencrypted disc and whack it in the post dear boy...

And yes this is the same civil service and government regulatory scheme that will be used to "protect" your personal data throughout your ID-card governed life.

Just been and checked mine and will continue to do so on a more frequent basis than usual. What a complete balls-up.

Lizzy

Can't call them c*nts. c*nts do at least have a use!!!

odds are,some of us have our details on those two cd's!!!

I know for certain that with the comment:

'"The missing information contains details of all Child Benefit recipients: records for 25 million individuals and seven and a quarter million families," he told MPs.

He also revealed that the missing discs contain personal data including the names, National Insurance and bank details of millions of child benefit recipients.

It means that the personal details of every family in the country with a child under 16 have gone missing.'

(ie the one paid automatically, not child tax credits)

I can think of straight off the top of my head: Me Nige Lee Paul - xxx Steve and Lizzy Taylor

Gonna keep a close eye on my account!!!

-- "For those who are missing Blair - aim more carefully."

To reply direct rot13 me

bURRt the 101 Camper

200TDi Disco with no floor - its being fixed at last! 200 TDi Disco, "the offroader" 1976 S3 Lightweight

PLEASE sign up at

- they just got a twenty quid donation from me. How can the government EVER be trusted with personal data after this ?

Steve

Yep, just been discussing it with Juliet. We're not happy ... ;)

Fortunately all my kids are grown up so my name is unlikely to be on the discs .. but my daughters will be and she's already been the victim of identity fraud once this year.

I do hope, for all concerned, that we're worrying about nothing, but ...

What made me mad was some stupid Minister saying there was no evidence that the discs had gotten into the hands of criminals. What he failed to say was that there's no evidence that it hasn't either! Some might even say it was already in the hand of thieving b&5turds before it got lost.

well, the only good thing is we've got a 1 in 25 million chance of being used but the ods will be reducing as the years pass and the copies get distributed.

:¬(

Pete

--

a site dedicated to.... LifeFitness Equipment! :¬)

'Bout time people started saying "Yes, you can have my personal data but it cannot be stored on computer".

Now I wonder how big the fine from the ICO, DPA or what ever it's called this week, is going to be. Not that it makes much difference it's all

*our* money. At least the head honcho has had the decenty to jump this time rather than deny, double deny and impede investigation...

It does make one ponder if this is just the tip of a vast sea mount that has erupted itself into daylight but which has many other fissures still hidden and simmering beneath the dark surface of the ocean. Today the child benefit office, tomorrow old age pensions, Thursday direct-debit television licencing....

The old days of rows of cabinets full of buff-coloured files suddenly seems rather more sensible.

(the other) Steve

The government and civil service are actually pretty good at keeping your data safe --- compared to the businesses that routinely fart about with your data on a daily basis. Outsourcing overseas has been a major issue, even the big banks do it, even those who no longer have call centres overseas still have a lot of other manual processing work done overseas so your data gets exposed to the wonderful confidentiality of countries like India and China.

You don't tend to hear about businesses losing great swathes of data, there have been some cases recently on The Register, but mostly you just don't hear about instances where data has been stolen from hacked servers or left on the train on a laptop. How many companies would contact their entire customerbase to tell them of such an incident? Hardly any.

He'll have got a socking great payoff, top civil servants don't go without it.. It'll do sod all though, not much point the head honcho leaving when the problem was the monkey on the floor.

I don't doubt it, at least if not in his bank account now it will appear later as an "award" or similar.

But should the monkey be shot? I don't think so it's the incompetent middle managers that need to be shot, those that have not ensured rigorous procedures are in place and followed.

They should all be shot, Darling down, just in case, pour encourager les autres. Let them understand that we really want data security.....

Steve

Given that he's not been fired, but resigned, I'm sure there'll have been an expensive get-out clause that gets triggered if he resigns, after all it wasn't him who caused the problem so he's fallen on his sword and will claim the expensive payoff that'll be in his contract.

Yep. It's like fining my dad if I get caught speeding. People have to obey the rules, and if the main thing that happens if you don't is that your bosses bosses boss gets a fat payoff and takes early retirement if you f*ck up then why bother consulting the well-documented rules.

Secondly this is not an issue that would never have happened if the rules had been followed. The only difference that following the rules would have made is that the package would have been sent via registered post rather than courier. There is no need in the rules to encrypt such sensitive information, only at higher classification levels, e.g. "secret" rather than "restricted" do things start to get properly secure. The database was only marked "restricted" so could be sent unencrypted in the post. That's been standard practice across all british governments for a long time and other countries do similar.

The fact that he resigned before he was pushed means that he can continue to collect his pension and is immune from any misconduct charges becasue he is no longer a serving officer. It's the way it's done with all senior ranks who get into hot water. He can still be investigated for the petrol claims, though, as that is potentially a criminal offence rather than misconduct. The Police Commitee should never have accepted his resignation in advance of a proper investigation.

In a dim and distant universe , Ian Rawlings muttered: [Snippety snip]

Some of us would go to prison rather than have an ID card!!

In a dim and distant universe , Steve Taylor muttered:

Absolutely. I whole-heartedly agree. And a donation from me. In fact, I support them so much, I became the local co-ordinator! :-)