This one has what could be incredibly damaging ramifications.
The personal details of 600,000 people interested in joining Britain's armed forces have been lost after a laptop belonging to a Royal Navy officer was stolen, the Ministry of Defence disclosed tonight.UPDATE: I'm getting the feeling some folks are being a bit more than sloppy.
It is the latest extraordinary data loss incident involving a Government department and potentially the most serious as recruits to the armed forces are targets for terrorists.
The laptop containing the data was stolen from a vehicle parked overnight in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham on Jan 9 but was only made public late tonight.
Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, is expected to appear before MPs next week to explain the latest Government data crisis which follows the loss of 25 million child benefit records and 3 million learner driver details in the last few months.
The MoD disclosed that the laptop contained information on 600,000 people who have expressed an interest in joining the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force.
For those who submitted an application to the forces "extensive personal data" - including passport details, National Insurance numbers, family details and medical records - has been lost.
The laptop also contained the bank records of at least 3,500 people.
"The Ministry of Defence can confirm that a laptop was stolen from a Royal Navy officer in Birmingham last week, on the night 9/10 January, and as a result, a large quantity of personal data has been lost," the MoD said in a statement on its website.
Hundreds of documents containing sensitive personal data have been found dumped on a roundabout in Devon.
Details of benefit claims, passport photocopies and mortgage payments were included in the confidential data.
The documents were found on Thursday at a roundabout near Exeter Airport by Karl-Heinz Korzenietz, from Dawlish.
At the same time the MoD said a latop containing the details of 600,000 people was stolen from a Royal Navy officer in Birmingham last week.
Mr Korzenietz said two months earlier he found similar documents to those found in Exeter. The Department of Work and Pensions said it was urgently looking into the matter.
"When I came from Exeter Airport, I discovered lots of papers on the roundabout," Mr Korzenietz told BBC News.
"I thought first of all it was rubbish. But when I looked at the papers I discovered they were highly sensitive.
"I was shocked and surprised that sensitive papers like this would just be lost like that."
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