MPs' fury as Ministry of Defence admits new data loss

Saturday, 11 October 2008 12:00 AM

The latest data loss by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has sparked anger among MPs after the disappearance of a hard drive holding information on military personnel.

Yesterday, the MoD confirmed that an investigation had been launched into the loss of the hardware which contained the personal details of over 100,000 servicemen.

Conservative MP Nigel Evans, who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Identity Fraud, told the Press Association: "This is yet another example of the serious implications the loss of personal data can have for the general public."

Media reports state that the hard drive contained the names, addresses, passport numbers, dates of birth, next of kin details and driving licence numbers of current members of the army, navy and RAF.

EDS, the MoD's main IT contractor, had been in charge of the information at the time it went missing.

The department learnt of the data loss on Wednesday and MoD police are now investigating the incident.

A MoD spokeswoman said yesterday: "On Wednesday, October 8th we were informed by our contractor EDS that they were unable to account for a portable hard drive used in connection with the administration of Armed Forces personnel data.

"This came to light during a priority audit EDS are conducting to comply with the Cabinet Office data handling review.

"The MoD police are investigating this matter with EDS."

The missing hard drive is the latest security breach at the MoD - in July it was confirmed that 658 laptops had been stolen over the last four years and 26 portable memory sticks containing classified information had been misplaced since January.

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