'Spend police USB stick data loss mega-fine on IT lessons for cops' A six-figure fine levelled against police for losing a USB stick of drug probe suspects' details should be spent on training cops to take better care of sensitive data. That's the view of a candidate standing in today's police commissioner election in Greater Manchester. Last month the county's police force was fined £120,000 …
They didn't make you do speed awareness courses - you opted to do those after breaking the law; they were an "easy option", else you'd have chosen the other punishment available.
I don't necessarily see a problem with this - we all want the police to be properly funded. But the IT dept need a good kicking if they aren't mandating crypto keys...
I can't help but agree here, and the same goes for the NHS.
They're underfunded, so they have to cut corners on certain areas, generally going the classic contractor route of "cheapest option who claims they can get the job done" which nomally equates to "Cheapest option because they're cutting even more corners"
This leads to stupid mistakes, like stolen memory sticks, records being left in the open etc unencrypted. The public bodies get fined for making mistakes
Now they're short another £120,000 in this case, which means they'll have to cut more costs, more corners, and make more mistakes.
I agree whole heartedly that the fines should be put back into training so although the money was lost, something actually came of it.
Lets put in a parenting analogy. I forget where I heard this. But here goes
A child is being looked after by a babysitter he's mostly a good kid but one day he's out playing in the middle of the road. The babysitter yells at him and tells him not to play in the road.
The next day the same thing happens again, and the day after that, and the day after that.
Eventually she says "You're a good kid, so why don't you listen to me when I tell you not to play in the road!" to which the child replies "What's a road?"
That's what we're doing right now, we're yelling at the police, we're taking away their toys (money) but they keep making the same mistake because they don't know what a road is (or in this case IT security). If we actually sat down and explained to them what a road is (or how to encrypt files) then they will be less likely to keep on doing it.
Given the media coverage of data loss (from NHS to Schools to Local Govt) over the last few years you'd have to be pretty dense for that not to have filtered through now.
These things happen, not down to lack of training (though it's easy to blame that) but because after hours of lecturing on best practises tired and busy people take the easy way out.
(I need to take this data home but if i speak to IT I'll just get bogged down in paperwork and questions)
Experience? Working with a small finance company - where everyone was lectured regularly on the importance of FSA and Data Protection regs. Didn't stop people on Friday evening from dumping stuff onto their laptops before heading out the door.
dude I think the police know what the road is. I mean they drive around in police cars so they wouldn't get very far in the policing business not knowing what a road is! also with IT security be careful you don't end up wasting police time with your mad ideas. the police are busy trying to catch jimmy savile's henchmen before they strike again they dont have time for IT security. Isnt the security of children more important??
Why the fuck should public organizations get off lightly? Sure spend the fine on training, but then you have to do that for everyone like banks too.
Fine individuals a bit too, but that doesn't help much either if they are ignorant and stupid and just in a rush.
whats good for the goose is good for the gander...
Blaming the police force is only part of the issue. Far greater way of making sure this doesn't happen is to have very public dismissal of staff involved, followed by prosecution and huge home-losing fines for data theft.
Crap like this is nearly always the fault of middle managers who are somehow a 'can I just' exception. See recent BOFH.
My encrypted USB stick only talks to a machine at home (also locked down - both CSEG certified) that can handle the encryption. Sure, losing it would be silly and require a formal security report, but still one can be relatively relaxed at restricted level data being transported on it
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