SCOTLAND COMPUTER THEFT Computer theft: 'Locked cabinets full of files were difficult to steal' - Scotsman.com News:

Computer theft: 'Locked cabinets full of files were difficult to steal'

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Published Date: 02 April 2009
WHILE few people will be concerned by the range of bizarre items stolen from NHS Lothian last year, it will be slightly more worrying that laptops and memory sticks containing information were taken.

Despite a worrying trend which has seen hardware containing everything from highly classified government information to personal finance and intimate health details stolen or lost, there still appears to be a general slackness in the need to safeguard such equipment. Hardly any sector seems immune.

Last year, bank account details, phone numbers, mothers' maiden names and signatures of one million customers of the Royal Bank of Scotland, American Express and NatWest were found on a computer which sold for the grand total of £35.88 on eBay. The UK's 500,000 civil servants were ordered not to remove unencrypted laptops from their offices following revelations of a series of thefts – including one in Edinburgh. Although with the technology and expertise that exists today, can they be sure that even coded material is safe?

It's estimated that more than 180 devices have been stolen from public bodies in the Lothians in the previous five years. Edinburgh City Council admitted losing 99 laptops or PCs in a five-year period. The Scottish parliament lost a dozen in its first 18 months.

Even the UK Government is not immune. Defence Secretary Des Browne was forced to reveal that a laptop containing unencrypted details of around 500 people was stolen from an Army careers office in Edinburgh. The theft was only admitted after it came to light that another device which carried personal data on 600,000 people was stolen from a recruiting office in Birmingham. Only last month Lothian and Borders Police admitted it had lost a memory stick containing details of hundreds of investigations.

After a series of thefts – including one of a laptop from a university professor working with them containing confidential information on scores of psychiatric patients – NHS Lothian launched a security review. While it cannot be expected that theft can ever be totally eliminated, it must remain of concern to them that such items continue to go amiss.

Whether or not on this occasion there was potentially sensitive patient information on any of the stolen items is not the real issue. We are all being constantly warned about the need to protect our own personal data at a time when identitytheft costs the country almost £2 billion a year. But what is the point of us being warned about this if personal details about all of us is at risk of falling into the hands of any opportunistic thief?

Locked cabinets choked full of files may belong in the Ark. But at least they were difficult to steal.