British Firm Loses Thousands Of Prisoners Data On Memory Stick

In another case of lost or stolen data, the British government is investigating the loss of a memory stick loaded with unencrypted personal data on thousands of prisoners, including names, addresses and release dates. The data was said to have been housed securely but an external contractor apparently loaded it onto a memory stick which has since gone missing.

"This was data that was being held in a secure form, but was downloaded onto a memory stick by an external contractor," Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said.

"It runs against the rules set down both for the holding of government data and set down by the external contractor and certainly set down in the contract that we had with the external contractor."

BBC story.

UK Game Firms Losing Jobs To Canadian Counterparts

Lacking employees with the proper tool sets and a government will to succeed, the British video game industry is having a hard time these days. Industry lobby group "Games Up?" says that there are 81 video games degree courses at British universities, but only 4 are accredited by the government body which monitors such courses. David Braben, a spokesman for "Games Up?", says "95% of video gaming degrees are simply not fit for purpose. Without some sort of common standard, like Skillset accreditation, these degrees are a waste of time for all concerned." To complicate the matter the gaming industry in Canada is flourishing in part due to Canadian government support, vaulting Canada past the U.K. into third place amongst leading nations for games development. According to the BBC, thousands of jobs are now moving from Britain to Canada as the result.

More Chinese hacking allegations

The head of MI5, Britain's domestic spy agency made famous by Ian Flemming's James Bond character, says that “Chinese state organizations” are spying on British financial institutions, accountancies and legal firms. MI5 apparently sent letters to the heads of 300 British firms warning them of the hacking attempts and telling them how to identify Chinese trojans within their computer systems. The Chinese have not responded to this specific allegation but have previously denied any wrong doing saying that they too have been the target of hackers. I'll bet it's Goldfinger or Scaramanga!