MOD Loses 340 Laptops inTwo Years

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has lost 340 laptops over the past two years it has been recently revealed. The organisation also admitted that less than half of those machines had encryption software installed to prevent the exposure of sensitive data.

The information was released after public relations firm, Lewis PR, issued a Freedom of Information request. The MoD identified that out of the 340 laptops lost, 120 were stolen, 220 were misplaced and only 25 were recovered. In addition, 593 CDs, DVDs and floppy disks, 215 USB memory sticks, 96 hard-disk drives and 13 mobile phones were also lost, many of which were thought to contain sensitive data which was not encrypted.

The Department for Work and Pensions was responsible for the most losses with 71 laptops, 48 mobile phones and 27 smart phones reported lost or stolen.

Security advisor at F-Secure, Sean Sullivan, said: “It's scandalous that such a large amount of equipment and data has gone missing. There seems to be a cavalier approach to the storage and protection of data. Who knows what damage could be done to the UK if this material gets into the wrong hands?”

The MoD had the worst record of 11 Government departments surveyed under Freedom of Information requests with its loss of electronic devices costing taxpayers more than three times the other 10 departments put together.

The news follows a 2008 report which criticised the MoD for lapses in security which led to the theft of a laptop containing records of more than 600,000 armed forces recruits.