Government laptop “sold on eBay”

Sky News are reporting that counter-terrorism police are investigating the apparent sale of a Home Office laptop and encrypted data disk on eBay.

The laptop was apparently taken to a Manchester computer repair shop on Tuesday. Shop owner Lee Bevan told reporters “The customer said he had bought it on eBay and seemed quite innocent. It is just an ordinary laptop. It was only when we opened up the keyboard that we found the disc – it had the words Home Office and Confidential written all over it.” The laptop was put in the shop’s safe, and police were contacted.

A spokesperson for the Home Office said “Both the laptop and disc were encrypted, thus safeguarding the information stored on them.” An investigation is now underway.

2 Responses on "Government laptop “sold on eBay”"

1. 1
   Sue Bailey says:

   February 28, 2008 at 9:48 am

   The particularly ironic thing about this one is that for every “government data lost” story there’s been over the last few months, someone’s commented “I bet it shows up on eBay”. I guess it was only a matter of time!
2. 2
   Store Your Stuff aka Jade says:

   February 28, 2008 at 11:23 am

   If the facts are as reported, this is getting beyond a joke, because for every incident like this that becomes public knowledge, you can bet that there are several more that get pushed down the back of the filling cabinet!