Britain 'under constant attack in cyberwar'

[Sweetpea]

Lord West of Spithead, the Security Minister, said a mixture of state-sponsored hackers and "those operating at a terrorist level" regularly tried to break into key networks such as banking, electricity and telecommunications.

Although he said the Government was confident about its cyber-defences, he said: "If you take the whole gamut of threats, from state-sponsored organisations to industrial espionage, private individuals and malcontents, you're talking about a remarkable number of attempted attacks on our system - I'd say in the thousands.

"Some are spotted instantly. Others are much, much cleverer."

Lord West said the most serious threat came from terrorist-backed hackers trying to break into systems such as the National Grid.

Britain 'under constant attack in cyberwar' - Telegraph


I think it is definaelty happening worldwide. I bet we have a few fingers in a few pie charts.

[Churchill]

Does this explain why the government keep losing so much data? Or is that a whole other problem we only know half the truth about.

[Sweetpea]

Half, ooh I think there's a lot more than half we don't know about.

Why they cannot produce memory sticks with some sort of GPS or tracking device, astounds me.

[Haqa]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Half, ooh I think there's a lot more than half we don't know about.

Why they cannot produce memory sticks with some sort of GPS or tracking device, astounds me.

Erm, they can... They can also put hardware encryption in them, but it costs more, so they tend not to get them.

H.

[Churchill]

Great so if you work for MI5 or SIS, it's nip down to Staples like everyone else?

[Haqa]

Originally Posted by Churchill

Great so if you work for MI5 or SIS, it's nip down to Staples like everyone else?

You know my answer - I could tell you but then I'd have to shoot you.

H.

[Churchill]

and no one's looking so it wouldn't matter.

[Hekna]

You'd think they would have a couple of the expensive one's about the place for occassional use or to transfer a large amount of data. Haqa, can they not heavily encrypt the info themselves before they put it on the stick? So that it only costs them in man power?

[Von Spreuth.]

Originally Posted by Hekna

Haqa, can they not heavily encrypt the info themselves before they put it on the stick? So that it only costs them in man power?

Why should they do that?

Then the civil servants responsible for "loosing" the information would not get paid as much by those that "find " it.

[Haqa]

Originally Posted by Hekna

Haqa, can they not heavily encrypt the info themselves before they put it on the stick? So that it only costs them in man power?

Oh they COULD, but... let's say that a hypothetical government system was classified to carry data protectively marked at CONFIDENTIAL. The law governing how that data must be treated would specifically or implicitly prohibit the transfer of that data to any form of removable media that might subsiquently be removed from the CONFIDENTIAL enclosure (Cage, Rack or Room) housing the computer system. The only media the data MIGHT be copied to would be some form of encrypted backup tape, which would be sealed into storage containers prior to removal from the facility for secured off site storage.

To cut a long story short, there is NO situation where data from such a system should EVER have been on a memory stick. In fact if a memory stick where taken onto the data-floor, it would have to be PHYSICALLY DESTROYED on leaving the data floor...

The removal and "loss" of this data highlights no only serious breaches in protection of mobile data storage but also far more serious breaches in physical security applied to the premises themselves. In short, this had to have been done on purpose, there are too many accidental breaches of well established procedure all in one go for it to be anything other than deliberate.

H.