While the government continue to lose every form of storage medium that's not nailed down, does increasing technology pose yet another risk to data security?
Computer security expert Ken Munro, of NCC Group's Secure Test IT security division, believes that, even if the government finally learns to protect its memory sticks and laptops with greater measures, a more serious threat could still be looming.
"I would wager a guess that those who are smart enough to take appropriate preventative measures are still leaving one important piece of technology vulnerable to attack - the mobile phone," Munro told Techradar.
Cloud computing
He continued: "With increasingly sophisticated mobile phone technology hitting the mass market, and 'cloud computing' on the rise, it is only a matter of time before we hear about some high-ranking official losing data through this attack vector."
Cloud computing, an increasingly popular buzz phrase, means keeping computing resources in remote locations outside the computer room, accessing them remotely via networking technology. Google are already investing heavily in this system, offering search, analytics, document sharing and everything else we're used to as built-in features of its service.
As mobile phones become more proficient at tapping into these technologies, worries Munro, how long before they become perfect in-routes for data theft?
He concluded: "As the mobile phone is generally so low on the security agenda, it probably has happened already – and even more worryingly, that person doesn't even know."
