Slashdot Mirror
Data Breach Exposes RAF Staff To Blackmail
Yehuda writes "Wired reports, 'Yet another breach of sensitive, unencrypted data is making news in the United Kingdom. This time the breach puts Royal Air Force staff at serious risk of being targeted for blackmail by foreign intelligence services or others.
The breach involves audio recordings with high-ranking air force officers who were being interviewed in-depth for a security clearance. In the interviews, the officers disclosed information about extra-marital affairs, drug abuse, visits to prostitutes, medical conditions, criminal convictions and debt histories — information the military needed to determine their security risk.
The recordings were stored on three unencrypted hard drives that disappeared last year.'"
um, just because your boss knows something embarrassing, it doesn't mean your wife, family, whole world needs to know.
On the other hand, if your boss has special forces, it could work to your advantage...
Idiot: "Sir, you know that midget fetish I spoke about during the security interview?"
Chief Idiot: "Yes? I really quite enjoyed that bit. Quite naughty!"
Idiot: "Well, there are some chaps who think they can hold it over me, for a few quid, per week... not tell the missus, and all."
Chief Idiot: "Oh, well, that's not right, I'll send some SAS over there ASAP and they won't be a problem anymore."
"Ummm..."
These are the same idiots who are putting surveillance cameras everywhere, fingerprinting and taking DNA samples from musicians who are simply visiting the UK to play in a few clubs (then denying them entrance because the clubs hadn't paid a fee and agreed to report on them), and generally acting like fascists.
They're great at grabbing reams of private information they would have no right to if Britain were still a free society. Protecting it from unauthorized access? Not so much.
Goddamn wankers!
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
why didn't they just encrypt the disks? If it's supposed to be sensitive information, store it securely!
Because that would require common sense and competence.
How sick would a person have to be to be incapable of disloyalty?
http://michaelsmith.id.au
"extra-marital affairs, drug abuse, visits to prostitutes, medical conditions, criminal convictions and debt histories " - sounds like a viral marketing campaign for the RAF if you ask me - who knew that they had so much fun! I suppose the word 'raffish' had to come from somewhere.
Annual reports from Whitehall departments show that the government has lost all data it ever held on anyone.
Losses have occurred through couriered unencrypted disks, misplaced memory sticks, lost laptops, briefcases left on trains and files falling down the side of the tea machine. "The real scandal is that a train was running for them to lose a case on," said a source whose name has been lost.
Treasury minister Jane Kennedy said the HM Revenue and Customs breaches did not necessarily result in data losses, or at least any that they have records of. HMRC said it takes data losses and security breaches "very seriously" and thoroughly investigates any breach that it does not lose track of.
Information Commissioner Richard Thomas has served enforcement notices on various departments for their data losses, but the departments in question could not find their office addresses to accept the notices. They noted, however, that Mr Thomas' call was very important to them, and that he had been placed in a queue.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith reassured citizens that plans for an all-encompassing ID card linked to biometric passports and a universal medical record with the NHS would not change because of these losses. "We won't even be thinking about them."
http://rocknerd.co.uk
Drug using: As long as it isn't in the last year, it isn't an instant fail
Hooker-banging: Not a crime
Ex-cons: In the UK, the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act means that after a certain period of time a conviction can be considered "spent"
They're humans just like the rest of us?
The list mentioned in the summary is probably from the topics/questions asked about. That doesn't mean that everyone of the subjects - or even just one of them - has an affirmative answer in all of them. I suspect the truth is rather boring, with one officer having done some drugs in his youth, a different one having an affair, a third one preferring professionals, several with completely clean sheets, someone with a conviction for some minor (but criminal) stuff done before he joined the force, etc.
If you have to lay open your entire history - and background checks work like that - then it's very unlikely that you would find enough people with perfectly white shirts in the entire commonwealth to staff even one airforce base.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org