On and on and on

We hear of lost or mislaid confidential data so often, that we shrug our shoulders and it barely registers. We are aware of massive lapses by Government departments which seriously challenge their claim to be building massive secure databases which can interact safely.

Computer experts warn us that if human being can design "secure" systems, the other humans can defeat them. Perhaps the best example is Bletchley Park and the Enigma code used by the Germans in WW II.

www.openrightsgroup.org has assembled a very full list of failures and errors, not only by central government, but also by local government and private companies. Their list over the past twelve months records almost one every week.

To illustrate their list, to following incidents are logged for the two months in 2008:

18th February, 2008 Haringey Council - very personal details of 20,000 people
14th February, 2008 Black Country Hospital - 5,000 records on a stolen lap-top
27th January, 2008 NHS data on 1.7 million patients, on a stolen lap-top
26th January, 2008 records on over 1,000 Scottish students lost in the post
19th January 2008 RN/RM/RAF records of applicants lost in stolen lap-top
18th January, 2008 personal patient details of 4,000 patients lost by Stockport PCT, on a USB drive dropped by an employee.

There can't be many who have any confidence in the Government's ability to manage the huge databases they are setting up. We should be concerned at the details they are collecting about each of us in a sinister way, and even more if they can't stop other people coming into possession of the data illegally.