Move Over Darling
A brand new fiasco from the government which says it's determined to stamp out identity theft:
Darling says 25m records 'lost'
Alistair Darling has blamed mistakes by junior officials at HM Revenue and Customs after details of 25 million child benefit recipients were lost.
The Chancellor said information, including bank details of 7m families, had been sent on discs to the National Audit office by unrecorded delivery.
Mr Darling said it was "an extremely serious failure".
Well that's a bit of an understatement!! It is indeed "an extremely serious failure" and shunting the blame onto junior ministers isn't good enough. Apparently the Government had been aware of the problem for nine to 10 days and said nothing.
As if we needed another reason to scrap the National Identity database and the ludicrous ID card scheme, New Labour helpfully provides us with one.
More from Spy Blog
Yes, I know, lets just give
Yes, I know, lets just give information away.... Is it any wonder we don't trust them?
Such sensitive information
Such sensitive information being sent by unrecorded/unregistered mail/post
the very idea of sending such information other then by a civil servant messenger is the definition of GROSS INCOMPETENCE. What next from New Labour...The launch codes for Trident being LOST in the post 
...
"A135"
"This conference notes:"
"That over the past decades civil service cleaners, messengers and security staff have been privatised or their work outsourced;"...
http://tinyurl.com/2l9s9x
I love this sentence from
I love this sentence from the Channel 4 Snowmail:
Check the
Check the dates...
"Healthcare watchdog reveals serious failings in hospital's response to outbreaks of potentially deadly infection"
"Published: July 24th 2006"...
"The Healthcare Commission today (Monday) reports on an investigation into two serious outbreaks of Clostridium difficile at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, part of Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust"...
http://tinyurl.com/gch73
"Bug hospital avoids prosecution"
"Thursday, 15 November 2007"
"C. difficile causes diarrhoea but can also lead to more serious infections"
"A hospital at the centre of a Clostridium difficile outbreak which caused 33 deaths will not face criminal proceedings, safety officials say."
"The Health and Safety Executive ruled there was not enough admissible evidence to prosecute Stoke Mandeville Hospital bosses in Buckinghamshire"...
http://tinyurl.com/3x82g8
"Healthcare watchdog finds significant failings in infection control at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust"
"Published: 11 October 2007".
"Boards at all NHS trusts urged to provide strong leadership in infection control"...
http://tinyurl.com/22x4wt
Clearly someone was not paying attention...Another Brown MESS.
You just know that some day
You just know that some day soon The March Hare, The Mad Hatter and a Dormouse will appear.
The Chancellor of the
The Chancellor of the Exchequer told the House of Commons that there was no evidence that the data had fallen into the wrong hands. Of course, as we all know so well by now, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. What the Chanceller does not know cannot reassure us; it only adds to our awareness of his incompetence.
In today's world of instant communication, we can be sure that everyone who might have an interest in the data is well aware that it has gone missing. Assuming that there exist criminals who can see ways of making money out of the data, I think we can also be sure that they will get hold of it. Either they can bid for it, in a kind of underworld eBay auction, or they can find the person who currently has the CD and persuade him that it is in his best interests to hand it over.
Aren't you already looking forward to the ID card era, when all this will be done officially under the watchful eye of El Gordo? You will be compelled, on pain of imprisonment, to give all your personal details. These will then be recorded on government computers, and sold to the highest bidders. So the current embarrassing irregularity just means someone has jumped the gun.
Discs aren't the only things
Discs aren't the only things that go missing under Labour's authority.
Somebody is now in
Somebody is now in possession of the worlds most valuable USB flash drive. Thiry million records, including demographics and banking data. There's a lucrative international market for this material.
Let's hope the end users are not too greedy, after all, even 50p from each account should be sufficient, and represents a mere piss in the ocean compared to the hit we've all taken from Northern Rock.
Cassandra