>>>>>You can't imagine how this sort of thing can happen
>>>>>
>>>>>http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=495188&in_page_id=1770&ct=5
>>>>
>>>>? Things being lost in transit by couriers? I find that all too easy to imagine.
>>>>
>>>>I guess we'll find out how good the encryption was ...
>>>>
>>>>BTW Gordon Brown looks like "upper-class twit of the year" in that photo :-)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>Reports are that if you can read English you've cracked the encryption.
>>
>>Really? Is there a follow-up article about that? Your original link just says it was "encrypted".
>>
>>It doesn't take much money or effort to have pretty good encryption these days. If the agency(s) involved couldn't be bothered it seems only fitting that heads should roll.
>
>This report says the data was unencrypted
>
>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/20/ncustoms620.xml
>
>Doesn't sound to good if a junior employee had access to and the ability to make a copy of all this data anyway.

I see the original article has been updated to remove the claim the data were encrypted (and the unflattering pic of Gordon Brown). Although, page 2 of the second article says the CDs were "password protected" (whatever that means).

Clearly a serious scandal, with far-reaching consequences:

"Shadow Chancellor George Osborne also suggested the fiasco marked the “final blow” for the government’s controversial National Identity Card scheme because: “They simply cannot be trusted with people’s personal information.”"

My understanding is the NIC in the UK is a major Labour government undertaking, what we here in Canada would call a "confidence" issue. If the same thing had happened here our current minority government would have to abandon it, or likely fall to a non-confidence vote. Serious business.