High Ranking Royal Air Force Laptop Stolen From the Ministry of Defense
High Ranking Royal Air Force Laptop Stolen From the Ministry of Defense
Posted 12/20/2009 at 6:24pm
| by Justin Kerr
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Losing a laptop full of travel photos and bookmarks hurts, but losing the laptop and USB decryption key for a high-ranking Royal Air Force officer stings just a tiny bit more. Great Britain authorities are on the hunt for suspects in a high profile laptop theft, but you might be surprised to learn that it is but one of 66 so far this year, bringing the grand total up to 658 machines in the past four years.
I’m not sure whats worse, the fact that top-secret information is contained on mobile computers at all, or that the thief managed to sneak it out of the Ministry of Defense, an ultra secure government facility without anybody noticing. “This has the potential to become one of the most serious security breaches at the Ministry for a very long time” said a spokesman for the MoD. “An investigation by the MoD police is ongoing and it would be inappropriate to comment further”.
According to Intel stolen laptops cost companies almost $50,000 per year, per machine, so I don’t even want to speculate on what a laptop full of “top secret” government data would fetch. I suppose the only consolation is the fact that so many are stolen, I doubt anything contained on the laptop was still a secret anyway.
GPS tracking? Biometric readers? Anyone else have a few suggestions for these guys? Clearly they need them.
More like this
Jakspratt
December 22, 2009 at 10:41am
One easy way to secure your laptop's info is to set a hard drive password in the BIOS. The only way for a thief to access the data on your hard drive is to remove the platters and read them under a microscope. ADDED BONUS>>> your laptop's motherboard usually becomes unusable without the password as well (it does with Dell). This method does not cost you a dime and it is so easy to implement. If you want to secure the data on the drive so it cannot be read, set up an encrypted volume and save your data there. I am amazed when I read posts describing security breaches where there were ABSOLUTELY NO security measures enabled.
praetor_alpha
December 21, 2009 at 3:41pm
How about no laptops in the Ministry? If you need to see classified information, you have to be in a secure location, on their dime.
Simple. Effective.
rmac1813
December 21, 2009 at 2:51pm
anything sensitive enough to be labeled secret should at least be in a encrypted container if not on a disk thats fully encrypted. TrueCrypt ftw
nekollx
December 21, 2009 at 2:55pm
and i quote the first paragraph " but losing the laptop and USB decryption key"
------------------------------
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Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
Havok
December 21, 2009 at 6:51am
You go to Staples, or Office Depot and buy a bunch of 30 dollar cable locks for laptops, problem solved!
CLICK.
COMMANDER_COOK
December 21, 2009 at 5:11pm
Those lock slots look really easy to break... Maybe even by hand.
van_helblaze
December 21, 2009 at 6:10am
The UK is really messing up aren't they. I would have loved to have included this as a source in my paper for school last month.
bikerbub
December 21, 2009 at 3:42am
they wouldn't need much of any of that if they just used a GoToPC type software, or windows own software, can't remember the name, just use a fingerprint scanner to get into the vm software, and all the files are stored at a central location, just like if you work from home, except you're in a tent in the middle of the desert.
COMMANDER_COOK
December 21, 2009 at 4:20am
Surely the MoD blocks the ports used by such software. It would be beyond stupid if they didn't.
COMMANDER_COOK
December 21, 2009 at 1:04am
The guy below this post, "tonerarsivi", is a spammer.
And this time, please do not ban me!
I have no idea what "spam links in your profile" means!
gendoikari1
December 21, 2009 at 11:43am
A person of lower rank salutes the person of higher rank until they salute back. How would the high ranking laptop salute back?
COMMANDER_COOK
December 20, 2009 at 7:52pm
They should put RFID tags on them so like in walmart so when someone tries to leave with one, an alarm sounds and guards can check the carrier's ID.
Metalmorphasis
December 20, 2009 at 7:48pm
They need to improve and or re-invent them badly!
And then an auto destruct, or self destruct mechanism built in.
May cost a few dollars?
nekollx
December 21, 2009 at 9:21am
LAptops have Webcams right?
Well most do
Ocular scanner
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
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