July 2010

Cut backs are affecting the Governments ability to safeguard sensitive IT information, a top British security company warned today.

Leading Information security consultancy, MWR InfoSecurity, today warned that security measures mandated by the Cabinet office could be eroded. Any government organisations planning redundancies or significant change would obviously be at a higher risk.

The company said that large scale cuts in budgets to government departments was clearly starting to affect the security needed to safeguard the large amounts of private data held within the Government.

Alex Fidgen a director of the firm based in Basingstoke, Hampshire said: “Last week it was revealed that amongst 11 government departments surveyed the Ministry of Defence had lost 340 laptops, 593 CD’s and 215 memory sticks, worth some £600,000. Across Government this figure is obviously much higher”

He added: “ Its not just information that might be held by the security services but data that is held on all of us by agencies like, HMRC, who have a history of data loss.

“We are now seeing clear evidence of conflict occurring between the teams responsible for ongoing security assurance, the protection of government data, and lack of budget to allow the necessary security checking and protection measures.

“ What is making this particularly hard for these teams is that these checks and measures are mandated via the Cabinet Office but the budget cutbacks currently being enforced are making it very hard to maintain the required assurance measures across Government.”

Fidgen said: “ The upshot of this is going to be a marked increase in Data Loss and high profile security incidents in the next 6 to 18 months as critical systems and information are not properly audited. The UK government has one of the most mature frameworks in the world when it comes to managing information security risk - it is important that this is not compromised as cuts are being made"

Nearly all government departments have suffered public breaches of security or data loss, making this a particularly sensitive issue. With further budget cuts anticipated it places the commitment for data security in the spotlight at a time when it has become accepted practice to join multiple systems together and share data held across departments.

Alex Fidgen added: "As government security policy dictates, expenditure must be closely aligned with the security threats and risks faced. We believe that if adequate security cannot be assured when managing these risks the affected Government departments should consider whether they are able to continue holding sensitive personal information"