"David Davis described the theft as extremely serious. "Terror investigations are extremely complex and depend on vital intelligence and evidence based on phone records," he said."

Which has what to do with the data on the stolen server, unless there's some terrorists out there logging all their own calls?

"Hello, you've called the Fundamentalist Terrorist hotline, for all your terror support needs. Calls may be monitored or recorded for training and quality assurance purposes. Press one if you have carried out, or are planning an attack....."

Machine that deals with security is stolen.

I know the British are the masters when it comes to plays on words and irony, but this takes the cake.

Well, of course they link it to terror; that way they get broader power persecuting - er, sorry, PROSECUTING, whomever perpetrated the crime.

Can you imagine the headlines? "HACKER TERRORIST APPREHENDED BEFORE PLOT UNFOLDS!" Two huge words in the headlines equals big readership!

Feh.

I think you're missing the point there. When the police recover mobile phones, or where the terrorists live, they can ask the relevant telcos for call records, or indeed GCHQ if they were being monitored. These would then be stored on a server like this for evidence purposes.

FTS said: "In the unlikely event that the server was accessed, none of the data stored on the server in any way compromises ongoing police operations. All the data was restored within 24 hours due to FTS' business continuity measures."

It is extremely serious but practically worthless without its Drivers.

"Which has what to do with the data on the stolen server, unless there's some terrorists out there logging all their own calls?"

They process mobile phone handsets finding out who they have called and/or texted along with where the person was (cell site analysis). If they have siezed the phone of a known terrorist they could have been extracting data on his co-conspirators.

Just my 2p.

They said it was all old data that was taken, I suppose that was just the thieves bad luck that they didn't take the live server!

A machine with properly encrypted content and full backups in place? Managed by a government sub-contractor?

Pull the other one, it's got bells on :-D

I'm surprised they haven't outsourced this work to Pakistan.

Are police police reports a matter of public record in the UK? If so, guess who's highly guarded secret location just got outed.

I too find it ironic that a server has been stolen from a security company. Not a laptop, not a disk drive, but a whole server. How does that get out of the building without being noticed? This has all the marking of a Monty Python skit.

"Good evening, officer"

"Good evening. Say, what's that you've got in your pants?"

"Oh, it's nothing"

"Looks like something to me"

"Okay, actually I'm very popular with the ladies, if you know what I mean"

"Oh, in that case, carry on" wink wink, nudge nudge.

Anyone who goes to the trouble of stealing a server is going to make sure they get the right one. Pure incident management rather than truth.

If you have a server processing this kind of data you ought to go to the trouble of running full hard disk encryption then they've only got access while the box is up and running. At this point I have visions of them running off with the UPS as well , well it would'nt be running with the UPS would it ;)

"the live server!" Yes, that is what is nearly missing. But there are always Proxies of course, for Security in dDepth.

"I'm surprised they haven't outsourced this work to Pakistan." ... For Talibanation, Ralph B?

Now that would be an Opus Dei/Dearum, meThinks. Madonna's Lair/Kaballah Heights

A couple of years back a major govt agency with security and law enforcement responsibilites had a couple of servers stolen from their offices in Aust (to a certain amount of amusement). Turned out the thieves were doing it for a relative who was 'known to the police', this relly was opening an internet cafe and wanted a couple of cheap servers (one wonders which truck the PCs fell from). What this tells is is that 'interesting' people are in the internet cafe biz. Is UK any different?

This is why National ID databases and tearing down privacy legislation is a Really Bad Idea. I can see the headlines now:

COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM NATIONAL ID DATA CENTRE

Thieves have stolen a number of computers containing sensitive citizen biometrics and identity information, including passport and bank details, from the National ID data centre in Dullsworth. Police believe the theft may be linked to international identity fraud rings, and say there is some evidence the thieves were assisted by an insider... etc.

What would be poetic justice in such a case would be if the computers in question contained the biometric and bank data of certain prominent politicians who have made it their business to do away with privacy laws.