Security News > 2010 > July > MoD loses a staggering 340 laptop computers in TWO YEARS...and most of them were not encrypted
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1296773/MoD-loses-staggering-340-laptop-computers-TWO-YEARS--encrypted.html By Daily Mail Reporter 22nd July 2010 The Ministry of Defence has lost or had stolen 340 laptops worth more than £600,000 in the last two years, figures reveal today. A total of 593 CDs, DVDs and floppy disks, 215 USB memory sticks, 96 removable hard disk drives and 13 mobile phones have also disappeared from the department since the release of a scathing report into MoD data losses. Only one in five of the hi-tech devices that disappeared was encrypted, leading security experts to criticise the 'cavalier attitude' to the protection of data. The MoD had the worst record of 11 government departments surveyed in Freedom of Information requests made by technology consultants Lewis Communications. In total the ministries reported the loss of 518 laptops, 131 BlackBerrys or iPhones, 104 mobile devices and 932 electronic storage devices over the past two years, at an estimated cost to the taxpayer of £781,453. [...]