More here: Clicky It's on the Daily Mail site. You've been warned.

Well consider how many laptops they probably have. In the overall scheme it is probably a very small percentage but that has never let the Daily Mail not run with a story.

Some laptops don't need to be encrypted...Dad's got a laptop at home from the MoD which is encrypted, but doesn't need to be, it only does general home stuff and doesn't touch anything to do with the MoD...

Part of the problem is that whoever is in charge of setting the IT policies has got it all wrong. People don't want encryption because it makes file recovery harder, it's an extra step when logging in, whatever. It's far too easy for these people to order in their own laptops. These laptops won't work on the new MoD network, but you can use a special (has to be special to work on the network) USB stick and transfer files as and when you want them...

The security needs to be simplified because people will find their way around things they don't want to do.

But there are always exceptions. I could write to unencrypted USB sticks, for example, and had I been lazy I would have always done so, just to avoid the hassle of dealing with the encryption software.

IIRC, if you were on DII/F you could only use certain USB sticks.
But yes, if you did work on a non-MoD laptop you could put it onto an unencrypted USB stick.

I wasn't working for the MoD, but on MoD contracts and so we had to comply with the relevant standards. I had unecrypted write permissions as a means of getting software onto flight hardware for testing purposes, but I could write anything to it had I wanted, including various documents that we wouldn't want to be out for public viewing.

Even so, 340 laptops in the last two years? It's at least time to put out a politely worded reminder not to be a complete idiot (mistakes do happen)...

Yes but in comparison to the numbers of laptops bought every year it will be insignificant. Maybe billing the employee £200 for each lost laptop might be an incentive to either not take one off site or be more careful. In the end it is still tax payers money.

Yes anything ( removable media ) on GSI or above has to be .

I wouldn't mind betting that most of those were sent for repair and not returned.

Do you think I could set myself up as a repair contractor on that basis?

340 machines, at a cost £600000? I make that just over £1700 each.

Must have been bloody nice machines.

Yep.

Mind what is wrong with a secure VPN into a machine within the MOD to access for work? Sure it's slower but if you have to log in (and can't store files locally) then there is an argument for very sensitive files

That's an option and does happen, but what about using the laptop on the train? Sure, you could use a mobile connection, but that's even slower and costs even more public money. Then once you get off the train you enter a business which doesn't offer guests any sort of network access, more mobile connections is more time wasted and more public money gone down the drain.
Then you have to train those who think that a slice of cake printed around a Word document is the best thing in the world how to use the VPN and possisbly teach them to use an device that will generate their password based on the time and then maybe go as far as saying that their account will only work with a given machine (MAC address) and suddenly it's easier and cheaper to do what they are doing now. 340 machines out of how many? Sounds like not a bad figure to me. Sure it could be less, but it could be much, much higher.