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Top UK Government Official's BlackBerry Infiltrated After Shanghai Fling

by Will Safer on July 25, 2008 at 01:46 PM



This item almost reads like something out of a spy story: 'Western Government Official Conned By Seductress.'

But the real news is this: a senior member of British Prime Minster Gordon Brown's staff, during a visit to Shanghai earlier this year, decided to spend the night with a pretty young local woman, and discovered the next morning his BlackBerry was missing.

At risk? At the very least, access to data on the handheld device and possibly to the computer servers at 10 Downing Street, the official office of the Prime Minister (Great Britain's version of the White House).

While the British government claims no data loss or infiltration, the incident highlights the risk of bringing sensitive information and access into China – a problem that could balloon to great volume during the upcoming Olympics in Beijing, when thousands of international business and government leaders visit China.

The Chinese government has apparently been stepping up its espionage efforts during the last year, to the point where Jonathan Evans, the director-general of intelligence agency MI5, issued a warning that the threat could impact Great Britain's economy if banks are compromised. (We assume other countries are similarly at risk.)

Despite all the warnings from governments and data security firms that people should protect their data (by avoiding everything from e-mail scams to carrying their laptops on international trips) the fact that the breach occurred in such a low-tech manner (a one-night stand is so cliché) reminds us all that good old-fashioned person-to-person contact is the possibly the greatest risk to information security overall. [Source: The Sunday Times.]

Tags: China, data security, DataSecurity, dumb, espionage, security, uk

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