Sunday, November 02, 2008

It's only a matter of time before we're totally rooted

The Mail on Sunday is reporting that crucial access codes and passwords for the Government Gateway systems has been found on a pen drive in a car park. What a surprise, first it was data of people that was lost, now they're losing the passwords to the systems on a bloody memory stick.

The only place passwords ought to be written down is on paper in a safe, and even then it's not the best solution. The people that need the passwords should simply just know them and not need to put them on a memory stick.

This is not the first time I have heard about the Government Gateway. Apparently DWP staff don;t get printed salary slips anymore and can only access them online. That's the sort of information that is invaluable to a fraudster.

6 comments:

Null said...

Dizzy, this astonishes me. There are really simple solutions, such as the EasySafe Lite, which would save so much embarrassment.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention, we are the UK distributor...

dizzy said...

Quality plug! Subtle :)

Mitch said...

and these people run the country FFS!
I can remember lots of long passwords and pin numbers and I'm just a voter.I imagine if you printed the lost stick it would just be the word "password" 15000 times and "fluffy the cat" at the end.

Anonymous said...

Gordon Brown says government cannot ensure data safety
“It is important to recognise we cannot promise that every single item of information will always be safe because mistakes are made by human beings. Mistakes are made in the transportation, if you like in the communication, of information.”

This sort of suggests to me that the security of his ID card database is called into question.

Catosays said...

The words...brewery, piss-up, run, come to mind.

Anonymous said...

Dizzy,

Did you see this on thedailymash?

DATA STICK MAKES IT AS FAR AS THE PUB
THE government claimed a major victory for data security last night after a memory stick containing highly-sensitive details made it as far as the pub.



Officials say they are at least 10 years away from just keeping this sort of stuff in the officeThe Treasury said the era of personal information being left on public transport was at an end and the public could now have confidence their bank account details would most likely be discovered in a car park.

A spokesman confirmed a data stick holding millions of tax records and passwords was handed to an office temp last week who left it dangling precariously from his pocket in accordance with procedure.

The temp was so surprised to discover the device was still there at the end of his journey that he immediately took it to the pub to show his friends.

The spokesman added: "He said he had successfully transported top secret data all the way from his work and would anyone like to help him celebrate.

"After three hours of very heavy drinking he shouted 'Christ I've lost it' until he was reminded he had lent it to some bikers who were using it score obscenities into each others' necks.

"He grabbed it back and went into the car park where he then tried to use it to light his cigarette. After 25 minutes he gave up and threw it into a bush.

"When he eventually did light his cigarette it was the wrong way round."