Blatant Identity theft

An epidemic of Davies's

The loss of a memory stick has led to a shameless piece of identity theft on this morning’s Today programme.

 The interviewer introduced ‘David Davis, former Shadow Home Secretary.’ Then we heard the reedy tones of identity filcher David ‘Top cat’ Davies, MP for Monmouth. 

David babbled populist rubbish based on his total ignorance of the subject. The Today programme did apologise for wasting all our time by interviewing someone who must have realised that the views of the real David Davies were being sought. He might have known something about the subject of lost files than can cause ..err...identity theft.

David sometimes dresses up as a policeman and roams around London stations. 

Surprising really that David ‘Top Cat’ Davies, in his hunger for publicity, has not arranged to do interviews explaining how it felt to win  an Olympic Silver medal yesterday.

Harm free sensation

How many people have been harmed by the loss of Government computer information?

I put the question last month to Minister Ed Milliband and head of the civil service Gus O’Donnell.  In harmony they said 'nobody'.

Today the nation is being whipped up into a new fever of indignation about the loss of a memory stick. The only people who have never lost a memory stick are those who have never had one. They are the most ‘losable’ computer item. This one is probably down a gap in a file, in the lining of a jacket or the back of a chair.

Such is the terror of identity theft; the nation is quaking with fear if their details are not firmly nailed down. It is not lost information that matters, but found information. None of the missing details have been found by anyone with evil intent.

Already Gus O’Donnell has transformed the instructions for the handling of data. Today’s lost stick was covered by Government department's encryption. It was a private company PA consulting that failed to encrypt the information and then lost the stick.

But the press are in anti-government mode. Every news story has to be slanted into an anti-government scandal.

Tedious twaddle.

Gentle courage
It is rare for a House of self-absorbed megalomaniacs to sign a tribute to a fellow MP. Fifty seven MPs signed the following  EDM I put down  in  March:-

HON. MEMBER FOR KEIGHLEY'S CAMPAIGNS

That this House applauds the courage and persistence of the hon. Member for Keighley (Ann Cryer) in her nine year long campaigns to expose the dreadful consequences of forced marriages and the hazards of consanguineous marriages; and commends her persuasive measured response to criticism as a model for others to emulate.

Yesterday Ann announced she would not be standing at he next election because of “ my age, health and decreasing energy". I e-mailed her yesterday saying that a half energy Ann is better than the turbo-charged average MP.

In a kind and generous editorial tribute this morning the Guardian said:-

“She has helped many causes with an unpolitical disregard for whether they are popular or not. In particular, she works and speaks fearlessly for women at risk from marriages involving overt or, more often, concealed compulsion, using a bluntness about cultural issues that has upset some people in her marginal constituency of Keighley. The Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act which comes into force next month is one result, and gradually, tenaciously, Mrs Cryer continues to win critics round.

At the last general election, when the British National Party's leader Nick Griffin unfurled his grubby standard at Keighley in the hope of gaining from local disaffection. The town rallied and Mrs Cryer walloped him.”

Parliament will be poorer for the retirement of valuable squad of principled MPs including Lynne Jones, Alan Simpson, Neil Gerrard,  John Austin, John Battle, Colin Challen, Michael Clapham and many others.

No, not for a second am I not tempted. I have only just started many of my campaigns.

Comments

[paulflynn]

You are wrong Andy. This data was lost by a PRIVATE company. When questioned at a select committee there was evidence provided that data losses occur to the same extent in both private and public undertakings.

The treatment by the press is mostly politically motivated hype. Aghanisatn is a disaster So in the Congo and Georgia and the Madrid plane crash. Loss of a memory stick is not a disaster until it is found. Still not a single example of anyone having been damaged by the lost data.

[Tonypandy Andy]

Rwendland's portrayal of government departments' reponsibilities for safeguarding data in subcontractor custody, and his drink driver analogy, are exactly right.

Government departments maintain the responsibility for ensuring effective controls to limit access to sensitive data access and its downloading. These controls should reliably prevent or promptly detect mistakes. If there are regular mistakes, then there's something wrong with the control system.

I wouldn't place too much faith in Gus O'Donell's work - the problems are too deep-seated to have been so readily transformed as you suggest.

Your expertise is clearly more in political propaganda. You would have us believe that if the safe has been left open, but the diamonds are still there, then you don't have a problem. If you advanced these views in a serious commercial undertaking, I think your credibility would be extremely low.

[paulflynn]

By no definition of a 'disaster' does this loss of a memory stick apply - unless there are disastrous consequences.

There were none before and the odds are that they will none be this time. The chance of the lost stick falling into the hands of a wrongdoer is small.

We have already had half a dozen major losses and not a single person has been harmed.
Gus O'Donell has already completed major work to tighten this system. Guarding against any possibility that a contractor will mis-behave has already been implemented. But nothing can guarantee that someone will not make a mistake.

The scale of the problems should be measured by the harm resulting. So far, none.

[rwendland]

PA Consulting may have lost the data, but the government remains responsible under the Data Protection Act. You can sub-contract out the work but not your Data Protection Act responsibilities - the DoJ/Home office remains the "Data Controller", and is responsible for contractually controlling and monitoring the "Data Processors" it hires.

You seem to be saying no harm has been proven, so not to worry? Does that mean if a drunken driver does not hurt or damage in his driving, we should not worry about prosecuting him?

The press may be making the most, but there is a serious issue here of the govt not enforcing good Information Security practice on its contractors. We need both the govt to inspect its contractors more, and for the Information Commissioner to be given real teeth that will frighten business into taking information security more seriously. This data should never have been put on a memory stick unencrypted.

[paulflynn]

A 'disaster' a day stokes up fear and dread
The tabloids invent them, their morons are led,
Millions of details are lost and not found,
No harm is done but fearmongering abounds.

[Jolly Roger]

Nice try Paul, that bit of spin,
About the latest Government sin.
Trusting this info to a private firm,
Who've lost the first stick of this term.
I'd sooner put my money on Arkle,
Than your government, so renowned for debacle.
But Paul says "don't worry it'll be alright".
Nobody's used it yet, so no need for fright.

Naturally double standards apply.
That may bring a tear to Paul's dry eye.
He says there's no problem losing this data.
"As long as you don't see my ex'es, even later.
My business is mine and should remain so.
Yours doesn't matter so just let it go."
The public, claimants and prisoners enough.
Are not as important as we of the Trough.

[paulflynn]

So far not ONE example of anyone using any of millions of bits of information that was been lost but never found.
The news tonight described the loss of the memor stick as a disaster. That's hysterical twaddle

[Paula]

With the onset of technology, identity theft can really run rampant. And there are even those people who do try to use those found pieces of technology with personal information to their advantage. Now that's not nice.

[4U]

The couriers should all wear really tight jeans and squeeze the memory stick into the watch pocket. Sexy and safe!

Alternatively, those really small memory flash cards can fit on the tongue. The flash card could then be transferred from courier to destination via a sloppy French kiss.

If, the courier was young and inexperienced, the promise of a French kiss, with tongues, at the end of the journey, would keep his or her mind 100 percent focused on the job!

If, the courier swallowed, just keep them in over night.