White House Disk Lost

A portable hard drive containing private information of members of the Clinton White House has been reported lost. Ironically, the drive was being used to re-copy the information to safeguard it against loss.

It is yet another example of the use of removable media to store sensitive data. And it would appear that the data was not encrypted.

The case illustrates once again the risks associated with the use of portable media to store data. Where such use is necessary, appropriate precautions should be takem, principally encryption.

There is an article on the data loss at eSecurity Planet and a Q&A at the National Archives site.