Has UK gov lost the census to Lulzsec?
They've got form, let's be honest
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Updated The UK's Office for National Statistics and Lockheed Martin are racing to check if hacker group LulzSec has got its hands on this year's census data.
Such a massive data loss would be embarrassing even for a government with such an amazing record of data protection failures.
LulzSec's Twitter page has no mention of the supposed hack, but a message on PasteBin - which is open to anyone - suggests they have obtained the records.
The message said:
Greetings Internets,We have blissfully obtained records of every single citizen who gave their records to the security-illiterate UK government for the 2011 census We're keeping them under lock and key though... so don't worry about your privacy (...until we finish re-formatting them for release)
LulzSec: Greetings Internets
It then warns that the database will be put on The Pirate Bay once the re-formatting has been finished.
We're waiting to hear back from Lockheed Martin and the Office for National Statistics.
The census collected information from 25 million UK households in March.
Lockheed Martin, lead contractor for the census, did suffer from the failure of RSA security tokens earlier this month and admitted an intrusion into its network thanks to RSA's failure.
Hat tip to The Next Web for spotting the post.
Keep an eye on LulzSec's Twitter feed here, for confirmation.
The ONS sent us this:
"We are aware of the suggestion that census data has been accessed. We are working with our security advisers and contractors to establish whether there is any substance to this. The 2011 Census places the highest priority on maintaining the security of personal data. At this stage we have no evidence to suggest that any such compromise has occurred."
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COMMENTS
Oh FFS
Isn't it about time we gave this bunch of pompous tits at LulzSec a massive punch in the face?
I'm so fucking tired of these self-aggrandising little twats hiding behind the fig-leaf of testing security as an excuse for shits and giggles at everyone's expense.
The more this kind of stupid crap goes on, the more of everyones taxes the government will spend on security in an ever escalating arms race and, perhaps more importantly, the less useful stuff can be done with data by legitimate users.
All these bloody fools will achieve is to make everyone poorer, everyone's lives harder and restrict everyone's access to legitimate information, giving goverments and corporations the perfect excuse to be ever more restrictive and opressive.
To defend these oiks in any way would be like blaming yourself when your bicycle gets nicked, because you only used three medium strength locks rather than locking it in a lead-lined bunker behind a 12-tonne door with triple timer-protected dedalocks on 57-digit combinations.
JUST. LEAVE. OTHER. PEOPLE'S. SHIT. THE. FUCK. ALONE.
I think you're forgetting...
...it was NewLab that gave Lockheed Martin the contract.
Yeah but
That damned census had a lot of invasive questions on it.
It actually read more like a benefit application form.
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