Ocean
The Living Force
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/3089374/Thousands-of-personal-files-stolen-from-RAF-base.html
Thousands of personal files stolen from RAF base
Thousands of personal files stolen from RAF base
The details of up to 50,000 serving and ex-service personnel are at risk after three USB portable hard disc drives were stolen from an RAF station, the Ministry of Defence has admitted.
By Jessica Salter
Last Updated: 4:49PM BST 27 Sep 2008
The drives were being stored in a double-secured area of the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency's offices at Innsworth Station, Gloucestershire.
The agency holds files on all the serving members of the RAF, veterans and their dependents. A Ministry of Defence spokesman admitted that data on the entire RAF personnel and their families was at risk.
He could not confirm what information was stored on the drives and how many people's records would be affected.
He said: "The MOD can confirm that an investigation is being conducted by the MOD Police, with the support of Gloucestershire Police into the apparent theft of three USB portable hard disc drives.
"We are taking this incident extremely seriously.
"In view of the ongoing nature of police enquiries, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage."
The revelation of the stolen discs comes two days after the Government was warned it should review the way it handles data loss incidents.
There have been several incidents in recent months involving either civil servants or government departments losing data.
An investigation was launched following the loss of a memory stick containing the names and expected release dates for 84,000 prisoners by a Home Office contractor in August.
Dr Stephen Hickey, who carried out an investigation, said he was surprised the department did not have guidelines with how to deal with the situation.
He said many of the lessons learnt from the loss should be formalised and applied Government-wide.
The loss of the prisoners' data followed a number of similar incidents across a number of government departments and agencies, including the details of 25 million individuals, including bank accounts and National Insurance numbers, lost when discs containing child benefit data went missing in the post.
Earlier this week, a disk containing the names and addresses of almost 11,500 teachers went missing in the post.
Thousands of personal files stolen from RAF base
Thousands of personal files stolen from RAF base
The details of up to 50,000 serving and ex-service personnel are at risk after three USB portable hard disc drives were stolen from an RAF station, the Ministry of Defence has admitted.
By Jessica Salter
Last Updated: 4:49PM BST 27 Sep 2008
The drives were being stored in a double-secured area of the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency's offices at Innsworth Station, Gloucestershire.
The agency holds files on all the serving members of the RAF, veterans and their dependents. A Ministry of Defence spokesman admitted that data on the entire RAF personnel and their families was at risk.
He could not confirm what information was stored on the drives and how many people's records would be affected.
He said: "The MOD can confirm that an investigation is being conducted by the MOD Police, with the support of Gloucestershire Police into the apparent theft of three USB portable hard disc drives.
"We are taking this incident extremely seriously.
"In view of the ongoing nature of police enquiries, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage."
The revelation of the stolen discs comes two days after the Government was warned it should review the way it handles data loss incidents.
There have been several incidents in recent months involving either civil servants or government departments losing data.
An investigation was launched following the loss of a memory stick containing the names and expected release dates for 84,000 prisoners by a Home Office contractor in August.
Dr Stephen Hickey, who carried out an investigation, said he was surprised the department did not have guidelines with how to deal with the situation.
He said many of the lessons learnt from the loss should be formalised and applied Government-wide.
The loss of the prisoners' data followed a number of similar incidents across a number of government departments and agencies, including the details of 25 million individuals, including bank accounts and National Insurance numbers, lost when discs containing child benefit data went missing in the post.
Earlier this week, a disk containing the names and addresses of almost 11,500 teachers went missing in the post.
