MoD admits to fourfold rise in data breaches

The Ministry of Defence has revealed a catalogue of data breaches

The government's information security reputation suffered another blow this week, after the Ministry of Defence (MoD) revealed that serious data breaches have risen fourfold over the past year.

The MoD's latest resource accounts (PDF) reveal that the department suffered eight serious breaches in the 2008 to 2009 period, up from just two in the preceding year.

The worst incident involved the loss of a portable hard disk from a contractor's premises, which contained the names, passport information and bank account details of an estimated 1.7 million people.

Other incidents included the theft of three USB sticks from "secure government premises", which contained details of all RAF service personnel who served between 2002 to 2008 and some of their next of kin.

And in April last year, an unencrypted laptop was stolen from government premises containing the personal records of 300 people.

The MoD admitted that it had lost electronic equipment, devices or paper documents from outside government premises on 15 occasions, and in six instances they were lost from within government offices.

The department said in its annual performance report (PDF) that it had launched a "publicity campaign" to educate staff about the importance of information assurance, alongside a mandatory computer-based training course on protecting information.

"Although losses and thefts have not stopped, and in reality may never cease completely, we monitor the nature and impact of each case and where appropriate adjust our processes in response," the report said.

"Increasingly where laptops are lost their encrypted nature means there is very little risk of compromise of data."