UK Government Data Breach, Missing Child Benefit CD-ROMs
Two CD-ROMs containing 25 million personal records were lost in the mail after being sent by the UK government via TNT courier services. The breach has fueled intense public debate regarding the proposed National Identity Card and general government competence in handling private citizen data. While the disks were reportedly encrypted, concerns remain high regarding potential identity fraud and the lack of oversight in government data handling procedures.
uk government· child benefit· data breach· cd-rom· national identity card
00:01 Once again it's time for the show that has no jingles, no commercials, no music, no talent and most certainly no agenda. Produced on a Skype-o-phonic transcontinental connection, it's the ultimate oral friends with benefits. From the Manor just south of London, I'm Adam Curry. And I'm John C. Dvorak in Northern California. Hey John, how you doing? It's a Saturday evening for me, Saturday morning, afternoon for you. Yeah, it's hitting around noon now the actually it's noon, but you notice our connections a little weird now I'm wondering if has anything to do with the Thanksgiving everybody took took off this weekend You think the connection at least in the US would be a little better? Well, I'm not much and you know the connections over here in the UK. I we have such varying
00:44 Quality and it's a it's really it's a countrywide problem So I would say it's probably on my end if anything and of course I've got two women in the house who love watching YouTube videos. Well, that's not good No, it's not good. Hey man Dominating the news here in the UK. Do you know what it is? No, what tell me it's the missing 25 million records on D and CD-ROMs Yeah, we actually blogged that thing on the Dvorak.org slash blog blog. 25, yeah, I know. Apparently what happened there, I'll give you the story from what we've heard, even though it's hardly big news here, we just kind of, you know, it's not, it was not about what's going on here, we don't care that much. But it sounds as though somebody in the government sent two CD-ROMs in the mail, but I guess they just dropped them off into one of the boxes on the corner, and they never got delivered.
01:41 There's no receipts or anything so they don't know where they are and they're worried sick. Although the disks apparently were encrypted, I don't see what the big, what the fear is. Well there's a couple things going on with this. First of all, There's been talk of a national identity card in the UK for quite a while now. So this is more about what happens with your data, what is the government doing with your data, is there any privacy, which of course is really interesting for a country that has, I don't know, 20, 30,000 cameras hanging everywhere. You can't take a crap without a CCTV camera capturing it. So privacy concerns put aside.
02:20 This was part of a coming clean in in Parliament on the side of the of the Labour Party Where you know there's been all kinds of little scandals that have taken place And I guess you know this disk it I don't think they actually put it in the mail They it was supposed to be delivered by TNT which is kind of the you know FedEx type service in in Europe and the story I read was it was put in the mail and Don't I have a feeling that it just got lost inside the inside inside some government Mailroom, and it didn't actually leave the building but even so I mean to think that you know This is the only disc that has ever been burned that this came from the only person who has access to those records I mean, there's not one single computer expert has been
03:09 you know, on TV or in a newspaper or anyone who actually knows how the government records are handled. It's just all it is is it's big jokes about the missing CDs. Of course, every everyone who has a an opportunity to do a joke about it on television or in the newspapers just continuously full. But it has nothing to do with the actual data. I think it has everything to do with the National ID card and the fact, and this of course is what's coming out now, all these reports, that identity fraud is a big deal and that it's very easy to steal someone's identity and go shopping on the internet.
03:46 so you did so there were concerns about they're gonna have a national identity card and they're gonna collect even more data and and but they're so careless with this data that these people should be tarred and feathered. Exactly. So the bottom line is you know we can't trust the government with with our data. I think that's what's really going on here. Everyone's talking about it. That's front page along with of course uh... Madeline McCann. That just doesn't stop. You know the seven-year-old kid who was abducted from in Portugal Yeah, well, I think it doesn't stop the story has been in front page for its like six months already Well, we fought against that story by by reintroducing our story about the girl who was who disappeared in Aruba Oh, you're right. Halloway. That's right. That's a Dutch the Dutch guy in that story with our own material We have a sexy chick who's been whose lost damn it is better than your young child. Oh
