AUSTRALIA FEDERAL GOVERNMENT COMPUTERS STOLEN Australian IT - Almost 1500 government PCs stolen (Sharon Mathieson, APRIL 02, 2004)ALMOST 1500 federal Government computers - including more than 500 from the Defence Department - were stolen between 1998 and 2002.

A parliamentary inquiry yesterday revealed computer theft was rife within government departments and expressed serious worries about the management and integrity of electronic information.
The committee was concerned personal information could be accessed by unauthorised people or for unauthorised purposes.

The inquiry originally focused on the electronic protection of information held by Commonwealth agencies but soon learned the more fundamental problem was the physical security of computers and the information held on them.

Committee chair Bob Charles said the inquiry was angry when it learned about the theft of information technology (IT) equipment from Customs at Sydney airport and a break-in at a Department of Transport and Regional Services computer facility.

"In its determination to investigate the scale of the security problem the committee wrote to all departments seeking details of their security breaches and thefts of IT equipment," he said.

"The committee discovered that between 1998 and 2002 Commonwealth agencies lost almost 950 laptop computers alone.

"This figure does not include an unknown proportion of the 537 computers of all types lost by the Department of Defence during the period."

The inquiry found a number of Commonwealth agencies had inadequate levels of physical security for IT equipment.

"This was reflected in successful breaches of the security of facilities, in poor record keeping of lost or stolen equipment and in a lack of knowledge of appropriate reporting mechanisms in the event of a security breach," Mr Charles said.

Labor's IT spokeswoman Kate Lundy said the inquiry had exposed the ignorance and neglect perpetrated by the federal government in relation to information systems.

"The Howard government has spent a lot of time and energy purporting to be a government concerned about security," she told the Senate.

"However, when tested, the Howard government has little credibility on the home front.

"If the Howard government were serious about the war on terror and the potential threat facing Australia and Australians, it would have been more focused on genuine homeland security strategies and far less sycophantic in its eagerness to join the US in Iraq.

"It is not lost on anyone that Australia's vulnerability to attack has been heightened as a result of this."

AAP