The Web of Evil

British spy loses secrets in a handbag

A British agent has thrown the war against drug traffickers into chaos by leaving top secret information about covert operations on a bus in South America.

In a blunder that has cost taxpayers millions of pounds and put scores of lives at risk, the drugs liaison officer lost a computer memory stick said to contain a list of undercover agents’ names and details of more than five years of intelligence work.

It happened when the MI6-trained agent left her handbag on a transit coach at El Dorado airport in Bogota, Colombia. Intelligence chiefs were forced to wind up operations and relocate dozens of agents and informants amid fears the device could fall into the hands of drugs barons. [Times]

Well, if the last couple of months have shown us anything, it’s that the values and work ethic of the private sector make it far more suitable than the public sector for handling sensitive data.

Stolen: Top secret entry codes to 73 police stations

Top-secret entry codes to some of Britain's biggest police stations have been stolen in an astonishing Scotland Yard security blunder.

The details—which gave confidential keypad access numbers to 73 police stations across London—were stolen from a car owned by a worker for a vehicle-maintenance contractor. The disclosure raises disturbing questions about how highly sensitive information is being treated by private firms working for public bodies.

For nearly 12 hours, officers all over the capital were on high alert after the driver told police he had left a clipboard on his back seat containing the secret entry-code numbers. [Mail]

... Oh.