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“Greater love hath no man…”
Posted by Mark on Oct 10, 2008
We hear that the cabinet official who left top-secret documents lying on a train is to be charged under the Official Secrets act.
Does this mean that data security is now being taken seriously?
According to the BBC website this move will come as a surprise to many whom, and I quote “will have thought this was being dealt with internally at the MoD and Cabinet Office”.
So really what is being said is that it should have been swept under the carpet and given credence to the long held theory that state secrecy is more to do with keeping us quiet and from finding out the level of incompetence in officialdom, than it is to do with safeguarding our security, and data security does not really matter.
Let’s have a bit of what has become known as transparency. Yes, prosecute the person who can have no possible reason for carrying such documents in such a way, but also crack down on the general level of complacency and carelessness that appears so prevalent in government, and do it so that we can all see it is being done.
Sacrificing a couple of junior officials might appease the baying crowd, but won’t stop the problem.
(with apologies to Jeremy Thorpe and his jibe at Macmillan after the Night of the Long Knives) - Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down the lives of a few junior officers to save his career”
