Encryption would have protected the contents of the stolen Scotland Yard laptops

(22/11/2006)

Scotland Yard last night confirmed that three laptops, containing the payroll and pension details of over 15,000 Metropolitan Police officers, have been stolen from the offices of LogicaCMG, the firm responsible for the Met's pay and pension service.

Jamie Cowper from PGP Corporation has made the following comments: "Only recently, Nationwide announced the theft of an employee's laptop, potentially exposing millions of customers; now, it's the Met Police. The Met has stated that 'the risk to staff members of fraudulent activity or identity theft is minimal' as a result of this incident, but hasn't clarified why it believes this. Was the information on these laptops comprehensively protected with encryption? Because if not, then this statement might well be premature."

He added: "Even more worrying, if criminals are willing to steal laptops from the police, is any organisation safe from this type of data theft? It is clear that the risk of security breaches is only going to escalate if companies don't take action now. Companies need to realise that data thieves have gone back to basics - why hack information online when it's a lot easier to just steal a laptop?"

Jamie concluded: "The only real solution to this growing problem is encryption. This remains the only technology that ensures data remains completely protected - even if it falls into the wrong hands."

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