Incidents

Stolen Blackberry Puts Downing Street Servers in Peril

An aide to Gordon Brown got his Blackberry stolen in China

By George Craciun, Security News Editor

21st of July 2008, 15:00 GMT

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Lost Blackberry becomes a security issue for Downing Street

While in China earlier this year, a senior adviser to Gordon Brown, who has yet to be named, managed to have his Blackberry device stolen after spending the night with a Chinese woman that approached him in a night-club in Shanghai. Although data loss incidents are quite common in the UK lately, the only punitive measure taken against the aide was an informal reprimand.

According to security experts, if the mail server info on the Blackberry device falls into the hands of a hacker, it could be used to attack the Downing Street servers. Also, if there is any private, confidential information stored on the device, there is a real danger of it leaking into the wrong hands.

According to a statement released today by the Chinese Government, this incident has nothing to do with espionage and the woman who stole the Blackberry was not a Chinese intelligence agent. It is believed that she was nothing more than a common thief who saw an opportunity to make a quick buck and went for it. Incidents such as the one involving the UK official are quite common in China, so common in fact that law enforcement agencies rarely take them seriously.

Liu Jianchao, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, issued this statement: "The relevant report was created out of thin air. We hope that in the future we do not see such irresponsible reports."

Mr. Gordon Brown's office acknowledges the incident, but says the circumstances in which it occurred are quite different from what it has been presented in the media. It would seem that the aide was not in a night-club and did not spend the night with a Chinese woman, but instead was attending an evening event alongside Gordon Brown's official party.

The incident which occurred in January and which was immediately reported was followed by an official inquiry. Also, security was never compromised because proper mitigation measures had been put in place after the incident occurred.

TAGS:

Blackberry | data leak | China | security

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