Purnell: Secretary for Oops

Another day, another data dick. The very day after Secretary for Work and Pensions James Purnell issued a public apology for absent-mindedly leaving sensitive documents lying on a train it is the turn of government subcontractor Atos Origin to hang it’s head in shame. An unnamed Atos employee seems to have seen fit to leave a memory stick, containing names and passwords for a government computer system, lying in a pub car park.

While the Top Banana would normally commend Atos Origin in it’s attempt to extend consumer choice in pubs from the current selection of knock-off dvds, fags and perfume, we would rather they branched a little less farther out in future.

The system in question can be accessed by the public via the government’s Gateway website, and allows users access to self-assessment tax return and child benefit records amongst other information. While Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been quick to promise he “will root out this problem about leaving things around” (surely that should be “problem of”, as there is clearly no problem “about” ministers leaving stuff lying at their arse, Gordon), nobody seems to be questioning why anyone, let alone an outside contractor, should have any need to carry this information about on a portable storage medium in the first place.

To what end might a database of user names and passwords for a system of public records be taken, on a memory stick, to a pub, on a Saturday night? Hmmmmmm…

Keep up to date with this history of government data fuck-ups, courtesy of the BBC. 8 so far this year alone. Now that’s impressive.