December 19th, 2009
So much for the Gucci Boys
The Serious & Organised Crime Agency has been hailed as the UK’s equivalent to the FBI, an outfit full of the best hand-picked detectives in the business fighting crime at its highest levels.
Which is why there might be some embarrassment in the ranks after a document containing the names & movements of 230 SOCA agents was left on a train by an unnamed agent in London last week.
A spokesman said: “This is clearly a breach of security & something we are taking very seriously. I wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of the agent who left the file on the train. It’s not exactly the actions of a top lever crime fighter, more like a ridiculous schoolboy error.”
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Tony F says:
FFS, again the folly of letting someone loose with a list….Perhaps if we didn’t keep unnecessary lists of things, they wouldn’t get lost. I wonder if we could loose a train load of bean counters..
December 19th, 2009 at 17:10
Fee says:
Basic security would be simple if stuff like this didn’t leave the office. But then I work in the private sector and I’d lose my job if I did something this stupid. Which makes me very, very careful not to leave the office with confidential information.
December 19th, 2009 at 17:36
Civ_In_The_City says:
And a tiny quote from timesonline.co.uk:
“The agency yesterday confirmed the data loss but said it had happened soon after Soca had been set up in 2006, “whilst staff were still working to the data-handling policies of precursor agencies”.”
The problem here being the assumption that policies can replace common sense. The belief that a procedure beats experience. That rules and regulations can replace training. That all jobs are just jobs and not vocations, callings or a call to duty.
The article explains that this happend in South America in a massive drugs operation and will cost millions to clear up.
Points that aren`t mentioned include: (1) Was the data on the memory stick encrypted? (2) If it was on a memory stick who needed to access the data from it while on-the-move? (3) If it was that sensitive there should be no need to transport it on a memory stick in the first place.
You can download military grade encryption software free of charge from several websites.
One way or another I agree that the root cause was probably down to bean counters. And numpties.
December 19th, 2009 at 19:52
Civ_In_The_City says:
I may have been referring to the wrong lost SOCA data, apologies, couldn`t find the London incident in the 30 seconds I spent looking pre-rant.
December 19th, 2009 at 19:53
quantum interface bomb... says:
easy done…
we’ve all done it… lol
December 19th, 2009 at 23:01