Laptop computers, whose contents were not protected via the use of hard drive encryption, were stolen from Belfast city centre, the central business district in the Northern Ireland city. It appears that this will data breach will affect civil servants only. The laptops were stolen over the weekend from the Department of Finance and Personnel. An investigation has been started, and inquiries are being made into what type of data was stored in those computers. It has been noted that the machines were "password-protected."
Laptop computers, whose contents were not protected via the use of hard drive encryption, were stolen from Belfast city centre, the central business district in the Northern Ireland city. It appears that this will data breach will affect civil servants only.
The laptops were stolen over the weekend from the Department of Finance and Personnel. An investigation has been started, and inquiries are being made into what type of data was stored in those computers. It has been noted that the machines were "password-protected."
The use of password protection, unfortunately, does not constitute data security. As I've highlighted in several posts, there is a very easy way to override password protection on computers: slave a drive (follow the previous link if you'd like to see what that entails. It's not hard at all). And, this method of bypassing password-protection is an open secret: you may not know about it, but anyone who makes it his (or her) business to deal in the murky world of illegal data selling would certainly know about it. Therein lies the reason why password-protection is not protection.
The use of password protection, unfortunately, does not constitute data security. As I've highlighted in several posts, there is a very easy way to override password protection on computers: slave a drive (follow the previous link if you'd like to see what that entails. It's not hard at all).
And, this method of bypassing password-protection is an open secret: you may not know about it, but anyone who makes it his (or her) business to deal in the murky world of illegal data selling would certainly know about it. Therein lies the reason why password-protection is not protection.
Instead, you'd need to use something like full disk encryption from AlertBoot endpoint security to protect the contents of a computer. Encryption differs from password-protection in that encryption will scramble your data, making it unusable without the correct password. Please note that, with password-protection only, the presence of the correct password is not necessary, since it can be bypassed. This is not so with encryption. Plus, descrambling data by guessing would be near impossible. For example, with 128-bit encryption, it's been calculated (conservatively) that one would require--with the aid of all the computing power in the world, including supercomputers--at least a century of non-stop guessing to even approach a minimal chance of descrambling the data.
Instead, you'd need to use something like full disk encryption from AlertBoot endpoint security to protect the contents of a computer. Encryption differs from password-protection in that encryption will scramble your data, making it unusable without the correct password. Please note that, with password-protection only, the presence of the correct password is not necessary, since it can be bypassed. This is not so with encryption.
Plus, descrambling data by guessing would be near impossible. For example, with 128-bit encryption, it's been calculated (conservatively) that one would require--with the aid of all the computing power in the world, including supercomputers--at least a century of non-stop guessing to even approach a minimal chance of descrambling the data.
Related Articles and Sites:http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/fears-over-civil-servants-personal-data-after-laptop-thefts-14322238.htmlhttp://u.tv/News/Fears-over-personal-data-following-laptop-theft/e5da9c15-02fa-4c07-8bef-d599416d36a9