The Daily Mail has had scathing headlines when government agencies have had security breaches. Now the Daily Mail itself has become a victim and has exposed thousands of confidential files:

“Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers has admitted that a laptop containing financial and personal details of thousands of staff, suppliers and contributors has been stolen.”

link: Daily Mail publisher is red-faced after laptop with personal data is stolen

It is unclear what “technical issue” caused a laptop to be stolen. There is no mention of whether these data were encrypted or not.

It seems that Associated Newspapers group is far more comfortable reporting the news rather than being the subject of a story. In the letter of notification, it suggests that “a thief who will not realise that there is any personal data on the computer and who may just erase what is on the hard drive in order to disguise the fact that the computer is stolen“. This is complete nonsense. Someone stealing a laptop knows that the information contained on a laptop hard drive is worth far more than the laptop itself. To try to reassure possible victims of identity theft that the criminals may erase the hard drive is delusional or wishful thinking. It is certainly not being candid and forthright with people who have had their personal information compromised.

Catherine Forsythe