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Server with Top-Secret Data Stolen
An anonymous reader writes "Usually missing information stories are fairly low key; the loss of a few thousand student records is cause for concern for those involved, but hardly national security. This one is slightly different. The company Forensic Telecommunications Services has announced that a server containing 'thousands of top-secret mobile phone records and evidence from undercover terrorism and organized crime investigations' has been stolen. From the article: 'The company — whose clients include Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service — has assured the public that the server is security protected, and the breach will not compromise ongoing police operations. The information is made up of either old cases that have passed through the judicial process, or cases that are already in the judicial system and so subject to full disclosure to both defense and prosecution teams.'"
...Forensic Telecommunications Services is a UK company, not a US company, so please keep that in mind when crafting your comments.
(And yes, this is fairly plainly obvious to anyone who takes a moment to look.)
I blame the intern!
The game.
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Which is it: Top secret phone records or information that has already been released in court cases? It doesn't seem like the two are the same.
Except that their physical security is apparently so poor that I can't imagine their data security is much better.
"All the data is protected, as long as the thieves don't look at the password sticker hidden inside the case."
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
from the Russian mafia.
"Top Secret" is a term reserved for government classification schemes (in the US) and is clearly outlined by US laws. Using "Top Secret" for a business is just sensationalism. This business lost sensitive data, not "Top Secret" data.
Do this mean that I will finally be able to see a detailed listing of my wife's calls? :)
If at first you don't succeed, call it version 1.0.
Shouldn't someone explain wtf does top secret policial information in the hands of a corporation? Such information should be gathered, kept and custodied by police.
"FTS can confirm that the company was recently the victim of a break-in at one of our premises in Kent. As a result, some IT equipment including a server was stolen."
Very important info for all those who want to start a flame war about what OS it was running and why it was connected to the Internet.
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1. Cryptonomicon-style, with a big coil embedded in the door frame of the room where the server was stored (question is, would that even work, without using an MRI as the coil)
2. with a brick of thermite on a proximity detonator inserted into the case
3. boring ol' cryptography
It seems most journalists are just mouthing the press releases over again. "Security Protected" is a talk-down-to-you phrase, "protected" means "secure" anyway, and it intentionally doesn't tell you anything about how it really is protected. The company with the break-in obviously wasn't using security sufficient to deter people targeting them - for a security analysis company not to use more expensive security commensurate with the value of their clients' info is not even mentioned. Something silly about outsourcing is mentioned in TFA but in not the press release of course because it was stolen from their premises. Impossible perhaps to deter a truly obsessed insider, but for TFA not even to talk about what that incredible "security protected" technology stuff is, is just dumb.
I think it would be in the company's best interest to say everything was encrypted with unbreakable algorithms, but perhaps they have rules about not disclosing anything and maybe they don't want to spread the idea that people should encrypt things, that would certainly put a damper on their business, wouldn't it. I'd understand if they don't want to say they have a cell phone tracker or phone home device in it, but as for trusting them when they say nothing is important on that server they stole sounds very strange. More likely someone knew what they were going for it sounds.
Well, I always use encrypted partitions for equipment that could be stolen - laptops, or my home PC - but I wouldn't consider it for servers.
This makes you think though.
Get your own free personal location tracker
It is probably understandable how laptops and PC's get stolen, as maybe an opportunistic theft, but how the fuck can someone just wander off with a server? This presents two reasons why it was stolen
1. It was stolen for the hardware, so have a look on ebay soon
2. It was stolen for the data that the machine contained, which is probably more concerning.
The Rand Corporation, in conjunction with the saucer people, under the supervision of the reverse vampires, are forcing George W. Bush to go to bed early in a fiendish plot to eliminate the meal of dinner.
We're through the looking glass, people
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
> Usually missing information stories are fairly low key; the loss of a few thousand
> student records is cause for concern for those involved, but hardly national security.
Yeah! The problems of tiny organizations are not really worthy of national, much less international, attention.
> This one is slightly different...'The company -- whose clients include Scotland Yard
> and the Crown Prosecution Service '...
Wait, I thought you said this was slightly different. Sounds like the same class of problems as that of a small school, from the point of view of the $2.1 trillion spending, 15 aircraft carrier battlegroup wielding, moon-landing, shuttle-launching, eh, it's only $500 billion for this war, that savings & loan bailout, that geezer drug benefit cha-CHING-ing nation.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.