Sieve

The UK Government leaks like a sieve.

I have refrained from commenting on several recent announcements from the UK Government on data security breaches. This week however seems to mark a major problem with new and even more severe news.

First we have the loss of the memory stick containing passwords fot the gateway website and then the announcement that over the last year thare have been 277 serious data losses.

Why people seem to be happy to allow the government to build a large database for the new identity card system escapes me. We can't trust them to keep our data safe.

I can only echo the information commisioner who said, "It is time for the penny to drop. The more databases that are set up and the more information exchanged from one place to another, the greater the risk of things going wrong. The more you centralise data collection, the greater the risk of multiple records going missing or wrong decisions about real people being made. The more you lose the trust and confidence of customers and the public, the more your prosperity and standing will suffer."