The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has admitted to losing data more than 1,500 times in the past five years.
Bill Rammell, Minister for the Armed Forces, unveiled the truth during a debate on the final day of parliament last week, confessing there had been 1,705 separate incidents of data loss in the department between 2005 and 2009.
Rammell divulged that 2008 was the worst year of the five, with 1,099 incidents occurring, whilst the next largest only came in at 347 during 2009.
There have already been 71 incidents recorded in January and February this year.
"The surge in reported incidents from 2008 is largely attributable to two factors," claimed Rammell. "Firstly, there is an increased awareness of the need to report data loss across the department."
He added: "Secondly, since the publication of the Data Handling Review and Burton Report, the MoD is now auditing its holdings of both personal data and removable media. This has identified a number of instances where the location of data could not be verified and has therefore been reported as a possible loss-even though in many cases they may have merely been unaccounted for or incorrectly disposed of."
Although the MoD has been upfront about the numbers, the particulars of each data loss are still unclear.
Chris McIntosh, chief executive of data encryption company Stonewood, said in a statement: "While this answer demonstrates that there have been a large number of data losses, it does not tell us anything about the severity and consequences involved, which are undoubtedly of much more importance."
He added: "If data is correctly encrypted and necessary precautions are taken, then a data loss, while unfortunate, should not prove an immediate threat to serving personnel or operational success. On the other hand, if unsecured data is lost, then the consequences can be grave."
Yet Rammell defended the MoD's processes and concluded: "The Ministry of Defence takes any attacks on, or misuse of, its information, networks and associated media storage devices very seriously and has robust procedures in place to mitigate against and investigate such occurrences."
"Furthermore, new processes, instructions and technological aids are continually being implemented to mitigate human errors and raise the awareness of every individual in the Department with regards to cyber security."
