UK GOVERNMENT REPORTS ON DEPARTMENTAL COMPUTER THEFT INCLUDING MINISTRY OF DEFENCEMoD computers 'missing' amid hacking spree :: Contractor UKThe Ministry of Defence has been hit by 30 hacking attempts according to official figures released yesterday, which reveal that over 600 computers have been lost or stolen in the last five years.

The Government’s homeland security department emerged as the most targeted for theft and loss of computer items, with over 150 incidents of computer equipment going missing between January and June this year.

Ministers heard the damning disclosures after a series of parliamentary questions tabled by Liberal Democrat MP, Paul Burstow, forced the department into revealing the Government’s ‘form’ in IT security.

He raised issues of theft, computer hacking and fraud across each department and received a written response from the MoD for his heartfelt concern.

Junior minister, Doug Touhig, told Mr Burstow in writing that “none of the reported incidents of hacking had any operational impact”.

Yet the minister conceded there had been 30 attempts to hack the computers of the MoD within 2005, compared to just 36 attempted breaches for the entire year before.

Elsewhere in government, the BBC reports that over the same five-year period 419 computers went missing from the Department for Work and Pensions, and a further 115 from the Department for International Development.

This year however, the parliamentary session heard how theft or loss from other departments remains in single figures, with "most" claiming no illegal access to their systems.

Aside from the oft-targetd MoD, computers at the Ministry of Transport have been a target for hackers 71 times between 2003 and 2004.

Likewise, the Treasury, the Department for International Development and the Department for Education and Skills said their IT systems had been breached on one occasion within the last two years.

For most of the reported MoD incidents, about half were classed as originating from an “internal misuse of resources.”

Whether this is down to disgruntled or inexperienced employees was not disclosed, as there was also an absence of dialogue over whether systems hacked or stolen were encrypted.

The DfES meanwhile is proof of further internal strife in government, given that out of nearly 40 incidents of computer theft; all but one was “perpetrated by insiders.”

The Department of Health meanwhile said it could not distinguish between losses and theft of IT equipment although it did report 44 such incidents costing a total of £40,000.

The quoted budget reportedly covers the current year (to date) and 2004, but a health minister pointed out the overall sum lost by the department since 2001 in terms of IT now stands at £233,000.





Jul 19, 2005