MoD loses 87 USB devices holding classified data

I found this to be quite alarming. I've been very interested in this ever since I read this thread created by "gekko" in the " Breaking Alternative News" area entitled:

'Sensitive' MoD laptop stolen at hotel



There "gekko" had brought to light that;

"A laptop containing sensitive information was stolen as an official checked out of a Liverpool hotel, the Ministry of Defence has admitted. The theft from the Britannia Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool city centre on Thursday was disclosed by ministers in response to a Parliamentary question." MoD laptop stolen from Hotel

Now it appears that the problems the MoD have been experiencing in keeping sensitive material "safe and secure" is just getting worse. They've had a number of USB storage devices stolen too.

Ministry of Defence staff have reported 87 USB data-storage devices containing classified data lost or stolen since 2004.

"Five such devices, all of which were reported lost rather than stolen, contained 'secret' data, the second-highest level of UK government classified material. Three of these losses occurred during 2008, up to 25 June.

Over the whole period, one device was lost containing material at the third-highest level: 'confidential'. None contained 'top secret' information, the highest level.

Of the 81 containing 'restricted' material, the lowest level of protective marking for classified data, 55 were stolen — 52 of these in 2006."

MoD loses 87 USB devices holding classified data



USB security has been a concern of many and there appears to be at least one company that thinks that better security is necessary for keeping information secure..

This Thumb Drive will self-destruct in 10 seconds...



"Passwords can be hacked, but not the IronKey. It's built to withstand attacks both virtual and physical. 10 incorrect password attempts, and the encryption chip self-destructs, making the contents of the flash drive totally unreadable. The contents of the drive are filled with epoxy, so if a hacker tries to physically access the chips, he'd more likely damage them instead. Even if he did get access to the memory chips, they'd be worthless without the encryption chip. Electron-shielded, even a scanning electron microscope can't get inside.

Their thumb drives hold up to 4 Gigabytes of data, but includes a hardware encryption chip that scrambles the data so as to be completely unreadable without a password."

The rest of the story



OK
So I'm just curious as to how many here think that this might change the way they think about the information they keep not just on their hard-drive but also their USB device's.. Do you password encrypt your information for security or are you one that believes that there's no point?

I myself have several external hard-drives that have a number of files password-protected, but as to how secure they actually are, who really knows? I'm not that "geeky" or knowledgeable about how secure encryption actually is. I try not to be paranoid, but hey... we all come here to ATS to get our fill in the conspiratorial world.. So I have to hope that whoever created the encryption software didn't also make a "back-door" to be able to access my information. And I also know that there are literally scores of sites that offer the professional and casual hacker applications to get into almost everything. If I wasn't paranoid before.... (sigh).

Sooooo... Is security as important to you as it is to me, and do you trust whatever it is your using?

Johnny