Monday April 16, 08:01 AM
"Top secret" laptop reported missing
LONDON (Reuters) - A Defence Ministry laptop computer packed with national
security secrets has gone missing after an official left it in the back of a
taxi, the Mirror has reported.
The laptop was thought to contain vital information about new weapons
systems, it said.
The Mirror said the official had notified police about the missing laptop.
No immediate comment was available from the Defence Ministry or police.
It was the latest of several laptops with military or intelligence
information reported lost in Britain in just over a year.
In March last year there were reports that agents of MI5, the domestic
security service, and MI6, the overseas security service, had lost laptops
containing secret information.
The MI5 laptop, said to contain confidential information on Northern Ireland,
was snatched at a London railway station.
Before the start of the 1991 Gulf War, a laptop said to have contained combat
plans was stolen from the car of a air force officer, who lost his job as a
result.
