Stolen MoD Laptop Located, say Police
A laptop owned by the Ministry of Defence which was stolen earlier last week has been found, according to the police.
The laptop's theft occurred on July 17th at Liverpool's Britannia Adelphi hotel and, added to previous, similar incidents involving stolen MoD laptops, bought the total number to 659 since 2004.
This laptop, according to an MoD spokesman, was taken while an official was checking out of the establishment.
Police officers discovered the laptop's whereabouts on July 21st and, according to a Merseyside Police spokesperson, no arrests were made in relation to the act.
"The recovery of the laptop was the end result of a joint operation between the Ministry of Defence and Merseyside Police that has been running since the laptop was taken last week", he said.
Encrypted Data
A further MoD spokesperson, meanwhile, described the state of the data on the machine and the next step to be taken, stating: "The information on the laptop was encrypted and we will be investigating."
Laptop, Memory Stick Thefts
On July 18th, the Ministry said that the number of laptops thieved since 2004 was 658 - almost twice more than previously thought.
Around the same time, it also emerged that 100+ USB memory sticks had either gone missing or been taken.
Despite these revelations, procedures at the ministry, the MoD said, were "generally fit for purpose".
All instances where data had been lost were fully looked-into, it added.
Source - Armed Forces International's Political Correspondent
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