British government missing computers


Recommended Posts

LONDON, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- The British government says more than 3,000 of its computer devices have been lost or stolen since 2002.

An estimated 1,774 laptops, 1,035 desktop computers, 202 hard drives, 195 memory sticks and 676 cell phones have gone missing from the government during the last seven years, The Sun reported Monday.

The Ministry of Defense and the Department for Work and Pensions -- each of which handles sensitive and confidential information -- had the worst records, the Sun said.

"It demonstrates a culture of carelessness that ministers have done nothing to curtail," said Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Paul Holmes, calling the loss "staggering."

The missing computer equipment proves the government "can't be trusted with our personal information," Holmes said.

source

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/715450-british-government-missing-computers/
Share on other sites

A high percentage will have been stolen from Tubes,Taxis,Airports etc by Chavs looking to fence it to buy drugs. A percentage will have been genuinely lost. A few will have been stolen by employees. Although it is alarming I wonder how many are going unaccounted for. And then there's contractors. . . .

I'm sure this happens regularly and not only in Britain, other countries and as we all know it happens to financial institutions and retail companies.

This year I think we've seen 40 million creditcard details being stolen from other enterprises.

As the world becomes more digitally connected these things need better security.

Edited by .Kompressor

Its way overdue for companies to encrypt their data and also secure their mobile equipment like laptops.

TechRepublic just made an article on laptop security devices/software for tracking your laptop if it gets stolen.

Open-Source option:

http://adeona.cs.washington.edu/

TechRepublic's list of security tricks/software/hardware for laptops.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/security/?p=685

Lojack for laptops by computrace

http://www.lojackforlaptops.com/

That's why I love off the grid with all my personal papers under my pillow ... oh wait I'm on the Internet, that's not off the grid is it?

hmmm thanks for telling me where you keep them. lol

"Every 50 seconds a laptop goes missing in U.S. airports."

Ponemon Institute, 2008

Ponemon Institute and Dell study on lost/stolen laptops.

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/servi...aptop_study.pdf

also, just found their study on the most trusted online retail banks for 2008 and 2007

http://www.ponemon.org/press/Ponemon_MTC_R...ing_2008_v3.pdf

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Louis Rossmann suing Samsung over "990 Pro SSD warranty scam" by Sayan Sen Back in 2023, if you recall, Neowin reviewer Robbie Khan had a dispute with Samsung over his 990 Pro SSD, which was rapidly losing its health. After significant back and forth, the tech giant had finally released firmware to "stop" the issue. Interestingly, its previous flagship at the time, the 980 Pro was also facing problems leading to two consecutive sets of firmware fixes. Three years later, it looks like a similar conflict has now broken out between tech repair entrepreneur YouTuber Louis Rossmann and Samsung, as it has escalated into a threatened lawsuit after the company allegedly refused to appropriately replace a failing 990 Pro SSD that remained under warranty. According to Rossmann, a 4TB Samsung 990 Pro NVMe SSD purchased for approximately $330 less than two years ago, began experiencing major hiccups and issues, even though he claims it had been operated under ideal cooling conditions. It was installed in a RAID 1 array and cooled by a heatsink and dual high-speed fans. However the drive reportedly started dropping out of the array, exhibiting controller-level failures that eventually became not useable in any meaningful way. Rossmann said Samsung’s support process was marked by delays and confusion from the very start. After initially contacting the wrong regional support channel, he was redirected to Samsung’s memory support division where he submitted detailed diagnostics, logs, and proof of purchase. Rossmann runs a repair company and owns an ACE Lab PC-3000 machine, which is a professional-grade data recovery equipment. As such, he had been confident in his diagnostics. Samsung even seemingly acknowledged that later. Regardless, Rossmann claims that his initial support ticket was automatically closed before a full 24-hour response window had elapsed, forcing him to reopen the case and resubmit documentation. The controversy however intensified further from here after Samsung accepted the drive for warranty evaluation but later returned it with a repair report stating that the drive had passed its testing and that the SSD had been verified as functional. Rossmann strongly disputed those claims citing that his own independent testing on PC-3000 showed write speeds reducing to as low as 40–60 MB/s before the drive failed entirely. Samsung subsequently informed him that the SSD had been reset and reflashed, passing internal stress tests. However, the company also stated that replacement units were unavailable due to an industry-wide memory shortage and suggested that a refund process could be initiated if further testing confirmed the fault. Thus, to settle, the company offered a refund of $330, the amount that was initially paid by him to make the purchase. Here, Rossmann pointed out the seeming hypocrisy of the tech giant as in how no Samsung drive was apparently allocated for warranty replacements, but they were abundantly available for retail sales especially when using business accounts. As you can see, Rossmann is indeed right, there are Samsung 990 Pro 4TB SSDs on Amazon currently for $950 (shipped and sold by first-party Amazon US itself), and they are also available on Samsung's own store too, albeit for an even higher price of $1100. Thus Rossmann argues that Samsung’s inability or unwillingness to provide a replacement while the same model remains available for purchase at significantly higher market prices reflects a failure to honor its warranty obligations. He has issued a formal 60-day notice and says he intends to file suit in Texas small claims court, asserting that companies should face greater costs for denying legitimate warranty claims than for fulfilling them. You can check out the full video titled "Samsung's 990 Pro SSD warranty policy is a scam; I'm taking them to court," at the link below. Source and image: Louis Rossmann (YouTube) As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases
    • Was it too much to ask to show the icon in this article?
    • Frankly, I blame whoever is writing such articles. "A big improvement/update and/or new feature is now available to everyone! Also, use this unofficial tweak tool to enable it because it actually isn't available to you yet officially and might not in fact even be entirely ready or whatever, hence why it is perhaps not enabled for you*. But it's great and you should enable it!" I mean there's nothing wrong with sharing info about some feature you might need to enable via unofficial means, of course. It's just that these articles tend to essentially end up being two news pieces in one, and one of them tends to be a bit misleading. (*Yes, yes, the "it's a controlled rollout!" thing. Not a fan of that one either. The argument, not the actual rollout.)
    • Thank you. Will do. I read in the release notes that editor config might be at play here.
    • Actually, I think even Microsoft doesn't know how to control it
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      davidbazooked earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Jamswaz earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Jamswaz earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Rookie
      Marzoid went up a rank
      Rookie
    • Community Regular
      coch went up a rank
      Community Regular
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      508
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      185
    3. 3
      +Edouard
      158
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      83
    5. 5
      ATLien_0
      75
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!