In response to an enquiry from Maria Eagle, Shadow Minister for Defence, James Cartlidge, Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence, provided revealing statistics on the loss and theft of MoD-issued technological devices up to 2022.
The data indicates a worrying trend, especially concerning hard disk drives.
Cartlidge stated, “The departmental security unit records and investigates each reported loss from the Department,” and added, “Any mobile device reported as lost is immediately and remotely deactivated, and the contents are deleted. The user account on any laptop reported as lost is immediately and remotely locked.”
The table below details the number of lost or stolen devices in the Ministry of Defence from 2019 to 2022:
| Year | Laptops | Mobile Phones | USBs | Hard Disk Drives |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 239 | 106 | 60 | 25 |
| 2020 | 163 | 73 | 49 | 24 |
| 2021 | 148 | 79 | 85 | 27 |
| 2022 | 281 | 112 | 51 | 40 |
Cartlidge emphasised, “All Departmental IT is fully security encrypted,” and mentioned that they do not differentiate between lost and stolen devices for security reasons. He also noted, “We do not hold information centrally on the number of devices damaged.”
The data for 2023 has been deliberately excluded from this analysis, as the figures are incomplete (only up to 18 December 2023) and, therefore, cannot be accurately compared with the full-year data of previous years. Using incomplete data could provide a misleading representation of the trend for 2023.
Up to 2022, the data shows a fluctuating pattern in lost or stolen laptops, mobile phones, and USBs, with a particularly notable increase in laptops and mobile phones in 2022. The most significant concern arises from the consistent upward trend in the number of hard disk drives reported lost or stolen, reaching a high in 2022.
Didn’t we have this same report on UKDJ a couple of months ago?
Something similar, for sure.
It would be nice to know how much of the above was lost by civil servants such as : Angus Lapsley, who lost a 50-page dossier, at a bus stop in 2021 was promoted in 2022 to a Nato nuclear role leading a team responsible for ‘defence policy questions, including nuclear issues’ in
Two researchers came to light this this year of course, in March 23, including the appropriately named Chris Cash, British researcher arrested under suspicion as a Spy for China (Caroline Wheeler, Sunday Times). Missing IT must be a useful little earner?
Surely a disciplinary offence, ‘losing’ taxpayer funded property.
Yes it is. And one that would trigger a security investigation as well.
Given how many pieces of IT hardware MOD uses, and that ‘lost or stolen’ can also mean ‘forgot which cupboard it’s in’, none of this seems particularly alarming. The drives in question will be encrypted- probably AES-256 bit, and without the encryption key no-one can access the data, (including the login credentials for any networks they may be linked to). There is also no detail as to what classification the lost assets relate to. A lost ‘Secret’ drive is a much bigger deal than a lost ‘Official’ drive.