This morning, the infamous online hacking group LulzSec issued a statement claiming to have obtained a copy of the entire 2011 Census database. Big Brother Watch Director Daniel Hamilton has written an piece for The Commentator responding to the news:
"The claims this morning from increasingly infamous hacking group LulzSec that they have obtained a copy of the entire 2011 Census are profoundly concerning.
"They come, however, as no surprise to Big Brother Watch who have for months been warning the public about the risks of this information falling into the wrong hands.
"If these rumours are proved to be correct, it will demonstrate that each and every one of the commitments made by the Office of the National Statistics about the safety and security of their databases was entirely bogus."
Click here to read - and comment on - the full piece.
http://2011.census.gov.uk/My-census/How-will-you-protect-my-data indicates that the census questionnaires are stored on microfiche. Of course, this says nothing about what happens to the data after it has been harvested from the questionnaires.
I think we urgently need to know precisely what the ONS has been doing with these questionnaires. If some security illiterate fool has created a huge database containing the personal details of every person in the country and then left it on a computer connected to the Internet, then we have cause to be seriously worried. If, however, it contains data aggregated by census area, it is no different from what the government publishes in due course anyway.
Posted by: Curious Cabbages | 21/06/2011 at 07:15 PM
Very good thing that I refused.
Posted by: Richard Craven | 22/06/2011 at 12:46 AM
This morning, the infamous online hacking group LulzSec issued a statement claiming to have obtained a copy of the entire 2011 Census database. Big Brother Watch Director Daniel Hamilton has written an piece for The Commentator responding to the news: The claims this morning from increasingly infamous hacking group LulzSec that they have obtained a copy of the entire 2011 Census are profoundly concerning. They come, however, as no surprise to Big Brother Watch who have for months been warning the public about the risks of this information falling into the wrong hands. If these rumours are proved to be...
Posted by: buy pristiq | 22/06/2011 at 01:10 AM
This morning, the infamous online hacking group LulzSec issued a statement claiming to have obtained a copy of the entire 2011 Census database. Big Brother Watch Director Daniel Hamilton has written an piece for The Commentator responding to the news: The claims this morning from increasingly infamous hacking group LulzSec that they have obtained a copy of the entire 2011 Census are profoundly concerning. They come, however, as no surprise to Big Brother Watch who have for months been warning the public about the risks of this information falling into the wrong hands. If these rumours are proved to be...
Posted by: buy lisinopril online | 22/06/2011 at 01:43 PM
Good stuff as per usual, thanks. I do hope this kind of thing gets more exposure.
Posted by: MBT Shoes | 04/07/2011 at 07:51 AM