Possession of memory sticks to be criminal offence?

This bit of lateral thinking will save the U.K. Government from looking totally incompetent and give the appearance of dealing with the problem. First the problem

"The latest Government Department to admit to "losing" personal information is the Home Office. Once again it's the old problem of copying information on to laptops or data sticks. The fact that individuals feel that they need their "own" copy of data shows that they don't understand how multi-user databases work. The fact that they are able to make these copies shows that their IT managers are running systems with all the security of free music download sites.

Why not do the simple thing. Hold data centrally, make sure you employ adults to ensure its integrity. Give your employees impressive looking devices to make sure that you can control and monitor who logs into the database and disable the ability to store information on laptops or data sticks"

I put this in quotes because I  use this EVERY time a U.K. Department repeats the SAME basic security error

Now the solution. The most effective way of dealing with this problem is to assume that every data stick contains confidential Government data and  that anyone having one is a criminal. This turns it into a problem that the Government knows how to solve. Usual routine. Rush through legislation in the afternoon. By evening have a profile of the offender ( we are talking contractors here so lets go for young,arrogant,male, BMW, aversion to documentation) and by the next day we can start producing statistics showing how the police are reaching their target of controlling the menace of stick crime.

"The latest Government Department to admit to "losing" personal information is the Home Office. Once again it's the old problem of copying information on to laptops or data sticks. The fact that individuals feel that they need their "own" copy of data shows that they don't understand how multi-user databases work. The fact that they are able to make these copies shows that their IT managers are running systems with all the security of free music download sites.

Why not do the simple thing. Hold data centrally, make sure you employ adults to ensure its integrity. Give your employees impressive looking devices to make sure that you can control and monitor who logs into the database and disable the ability to store information on laptops or data sticks"

I put this in quotes because I  use this EVERY time a U.K. Department repeats the SAME basic security error

Now the solution. The most effective way of dealing with this problem is to assume that every data stick contains confidential Government data and  that anyone having one is a criminal. This turns it into a problem that the Government knows how to solve. Usual routine. Rush through legislation in the afternoon. By evening have a profile of the offender ( we are talking contractors here so lets go for young,arrogant,male, BMW, aversion to documentation) and by the next day we can start producing statistics showing how the police are reaching their target of controlling the menace of stick crime.