It would seem that our trust upon the government organisations are diminishing as the embarrassing news of losing private and confidential information of clients and applicants, continues further across to the Home Office. A highly confidential Home Office CD was found hidden in a laptop computer bought off from EBay!
Computer repair technicians had found the CD lodged in between the keyboard and the circuit board of the laptop, in Westhoughton near Bolton. The laptop had been bought innocently and in good faith. Upon discovering the hidden CD, technicians contacted the police, who then sent Anti-Terrorist officers to confiscate the laptop.
Originally, a customer who had bought the laptop from EBay took the laptop into Leapfrog Computers Store for repairs. Managing Director Lee Evans, who discovered the CD, initially thought that the CD marked “Home Office –Highly Confidential” was a joke. However, when he checked to see the content of the CD he found that all data was encrypted, thus safeguarding any information contained on the CD.
Strangely enough, the CD also had marked onto it “If found please return” making it all the more suspicious. Greater Manchester Police Officers took the laptop away and concluded that no information was uncovered from the CD; however, investigations are being undertaken within the Home Office.
This is just one of a string of embarrassing events for the government departments, including the infamous HM Revenue and Customs blunder losing 25 million child benefit claimants details through the post; the DVLA contractor losing thousands of learner drivers details and the Navy laptop that lost hundreds of Armed Forces applicants details. It begs to question the running of these departments and what they intend to do to remedy the situation. Furthermore, are our identity details safe with these officials?
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