When will the next breach of confidential data in the UK occur?
A memory stick containing information on hundreds of police investigations has gone missing in Edinburgh. A search was launched after the loss was reported on 26 February - up to two months after it disappeared at Lothian and Borders Police's headquarters. The USB memory stick contains 750 entries on vehicles "of interest" to police, along with other intelligence.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7932228.stm
Background:
"An investigation is underway after a memory stick with user names and passwords for a government computer system was found in a pub car park, leading to the shutting down of the website as a security precaution.
The latest embarrassing episode for the Government in a long list of data mishandling involved the Gateway website, which is used by members of the public to access dozens of services including self-assessment tax returns, pension entitlements and child benefits. It has 12 million registered users."
Even more interesting is the list of breaches at the bottom of the article:
*October 2008: Ministry of Defence loses disc with details of 100,000 members of Armed Forces.
*September 2008: Files on 200 patients lost by NHS Trust in Co Durham.
*August 2008: Home Office contractor loses memory stick with files on 84,000 prisoners.
*June 2008: Government official leaves top secret documents on train.
*April 2008: Army captain's laptop taken as he ate in McDonald's.
*January 2008: Details of 600,000 potential Navy recruits go missing in Birmingham.
*December 2007: Three million driving test candidates' details disappear.
*November 2007: HM Revenue & Customs loses child benefit records with details of 25 million people.
That's an average of just under one breach a month! When will be the next incident of personal/confidential data being lost, released or in any other way erroneously made potentially available to unauthorised sources?
Settlement details:As reported by a major mainstream news source. Data may be from any private or public company. As background info suggests, the 'breach' may occur in a variety of different ways. 'Must occur in the UK' - means either the data involves members of the UK, the UK office of the company involved, or the breach occurs in the UK.
| November 2008 |
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| December 2008 |
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| January 2009 |
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| February 2009 |
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| March 2009 |
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| April 2009 |
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| None by 1 May 2009 |
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- Activity: H$9,467 |
- Predictions: 66 |
Comments: 0
Suspend date: Thu 30th Apr 11:59pm PST
Settlement date: Tue 10th Mar 12:53pm PST
Initial likelihoods: November 2008: 15%, December 2008: 15%, January 2009: 15%, February 2009: 15%, March 2009: 15%, April 2009: 15%, None by 1 May 2009: 10%
Action history:
tisha![[Admin]](http://www.hubdub.com/images/icon_admin.gif "This user is an admin"){kind=icon}
: show details
oasisman
: Police force loses memory stick
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7932228.stm
tisha: A memory stick containing information on hundreds of police investigations has gone missing in Edinburgh. A search was launched after the loss was reported on 26 February - up to two months after it disappeared at Lothian and Borders Police's headquarters. The USB memory stick contains 750 entries on vehicles "of interest" to police, along with other intelligence.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7932228.stm
Suspend date: Thu 30th Apr 11:59pm PST
Settlement date: Tue 10th Mar 12:53pm PST details 
Get widget!Predictions (66)
peterwindlehill
drblockbuster
predicted April 2009 (H$20 at 20%)Comments (0)
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