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MI6 Terror Photos, Data Accidentally Sold On Ebay
Barence writes "In what's turning out to be a bad week for security in the UK, confidential MI6 documents, fingerprints and photos relating to suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists have been found in the memory of the second-hand Nikon Coolpix camera, which was bought on eBay for only £17. The buyer immediately went to the police, who initially treated it as a joke; when they realised he was serious, they swooped on his home and seized his camera and PC. Remember, this is the same MI6 which plans to recruit new members via Facebook, a userbase not exactly famous for its dedication to privacy, security and discretion. The news comes on the back of yesterday's embarrassment over a local council whose VPN device ended up on eBay with confidential login details left on it."
The buyer immediately went to the police, who initially treated it as a joke; when they realised he was serious, they swooped on his home and seized his camera and PC.
This is why you never talk to the police.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
George Smiley would whip out a light-saber and... oh, wrong Alec Guiness film. Sorry.
Insanity is the last line of defence for the master diplomat. But you have to lay the groundwork early.
Just how many people buy hard drives just to mine them for data?
1. Buy the drives on Ebay
2. Scan drives for valuable data.
3. Sell cleaned drives on Ebay and sell data to the highest bidder.
4. Profit.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I think an intelligence service selling a camera with highly sensitive classified data on it is just a little more serious than some local council leaving the password to their VPN on a router.
I would expect small local agencies to either not have or ignore proper data scrubbing policies prior to selling old equipment, but national intelligence agencies? That's a whole different kettle of fish.
The UK government has approved a 700 billion megabyte bailout to stop the Data Crunch causing the End of the Internet.
Rather than just giving the data to those who have it already, the government is distributing everyone's information free. "We feel that there is strong bipartisan support for a bottom-up data distribution initiative, such that everyone everywhere can share in the data generated and held by government," said a spokesman whose name was lost.
Reports that Neo-Nazi organisations are asking for "lost" data disks with the name and address of every immigrant in the country are as yet unconfirmed.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
But then again, in the US they would have tasered him for no reason.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
I think the individual would have been better off (as in, not having his home raided and property taken) to have just given the data to wikileaks.
In response to MI6's ineptitude, the authorities have attacked the innocent person attempting to help them.
Remember kids, talking to police is not usually in your best interest. Be polite and complicit within your rights, but don't volunteer information.
ever goes unpunished.
If someone comes to you, DO NOT attack them! Be nice, assist in getting any secret data purged, and sign a confidentiality agreement, and give the guy a nominal reward.
Raiding the house of someone who does the right thing is a pretty strong incentive to never help out again, and a strong incentive for others to do so as well. It also feeds the radical opponents' propaganda machine with fresh fodder and lets them become the "persecuted good guys".
So don't do it. Know who your friends are, and don't mess with them. Or they may stop being your friend.
Western societies and governments have enough enemies already, and there is no need to create any more.
17 September 2008 The Insolvency Service. Laptop containing personal details of 385 former directors of insolvent companies has been stolen. Greater Manchester Police are investigating the burglary, which happened on 28 August. The Insolvency Service said 385 ex-company directors had been affected and also about 150 people with a connection to the firms. Information on the company directors included name, address, date of birth and occupation. No bank account details were held. In relation to the creditors, complainants and employees, the data included name, address, and bank account details in a small number of cases.
16 September 2008.
NHS memory stick found in street. An NHS trust has apologised after a computer memory stick, containing the confidential files of 200 patients, was found in a street. It stored a summary of medical histories and patients' national insurance numbers and addresses.
Monday, 15 September 2008 18:19 UK.
Police admit to lost data blunder. A police force has undertaken an urgent hunt for a computer memory stick after admitting it has been lost by an officer on duty. A police force has undertaken an urgent hunt for a computer memory stick after admitting it has been lost by an officer on duty.
Monday, 15 September 2008 18:12 UK. Trust loses 18,000 staff records. Discs containing personal information on almost 18,000 NHS staff have gone missing from a north London hospital. Discs containing personal information on almost 18,000 NHS staff have gone missing from a north London hospital.
10 September 2008 11:34 UK
Up to 15,000 patients' data taken
Computer back-up tapes containing personal information on up to 15,396 patients at a surgery have been stolen. "There are 15,396 patients registered at the surgery and potentially information on all of them could be on the tapes.
27 August 2008 12:38 UK,
Health board lost patients' data
A health board has tightened its security measures after the loss of two memory sticks containing patient data.
27 August 2008 12:05 UK Taxpayers' details found on eBay. A Leicestershire council is investigating a report that a computer containing taxpayers' personal details was sold on auction website eBay. Bank account numbers and sort codes of people in the Charnwood Borough Council area were reportedly found after the equipment was sold for £6.99. Information including bank account numbers, telephone numbers, mothers' maiden names and signatures of customers of American Express, NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) were reportedly found on the computer.
Thursday, 21 August 2008 22:56 UK
Company loses data on criminals
A contractor working for the Home Office has lost a computer memory stick containing personal details about tens of thousands of criminals. The lost data includes details about 10,000 prolific offenders as well as information on all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales.
9 August 2008 13:06 UK
BBC sorry after TV data is stolen
The BBC has apologised after a memory stick containing the personal details of hundreds of children who had applied to take part in a TV show was stolen. Deverell also informed parents they could call a free helpline if they had concerns about the lost data - which included names, addresses, dates of birth and phone numbers.
29 July 2008 09:42 UK
Missing laptop data not 'at risk'
A laptop computer from the Citizens Advice Bureau in Coleraine has gone missing. The details of about 7,000 people were on the computer of an outreach worker from the voluntary group which was mislaid in transit.
Wednesday, 23 July 2008 14:17 UK
Surgery patients' data is stolen
Information on more than 3,500 patients at a surgery in Greater Manchester has been stolen, health bosses have said.
22 July 2008 20:56 UK
'Spying' requests exceed 500,000
More than 500,000 official "spying" requests for private communications data such as telephone records were made last year, a report says. Police, security services and other p
> The buyer immediately went to the police, who initially treated it as a joke; when they realised he was serious, they swooped on his home and seized his camera and PC.
So basically he got punished for doing the right thing. I bet that will make other people want to tell the police too *NOT*.
Police = morons.
Next time, send the data anonymously to Wikileaks.
I hope they intend to replace it
TFA: "The police have reportedly replaced the seized equipment, at a cost of £1,000."
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
The police not only failed to have him shipped off to Guantanamo Bay, they actually replaced his £1,000 computer that they had seized it as evidence?
That's how you make friends and teach people to trust you. A guy wants to help out and you punish him, instead of treating him like the friend of law enforcement that he wants to be.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I used to work as a tech consultant for a mortgage company. They told me that, since they did government loans, the FTC required them to comply with certain privacy standards. Until I came along they were just deleting all the data on the HD's and then selling old computers. When I showed them how deleted does not necessarily mean gone, they were shocked. Then they started smashing them with hammers and throwing them away. The next time I came by I told them how they could use certain utilities to really the data and avoid tossing the drive in a landfill.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
I strongly suspect that the computer was used to look at the photos, which means it downloaded them, which means that it had classified information on it, so of course they seized it.
I hope he had an offsite backup.
He got a Nikon Coolpix camera for £17? Holy crap. What a great deal.
1) Sell camera on ebay
2) Wait for buyer to report MI6 photos
3) Steal Camera back
4) PROFIT!!!
5) Go to 1