Think of past stories like top secret information in a digital camera that got sold for a few pounds on eBay or the discovery of an USB stick outside a pub containing information about 12 million British citizens.

This time it was mere paper that was responsible for a data leak. Most users would think that pre-computer age politicians would know how to handle at least secure information on paper properly. This is apparently not the case as police chief Bob Quick managed to carry a document marked secret in public which immediately caught the attention of bystanding photographers.

The document, which can be viewed on the Guardian’s website contained information about an anti-terrorist raid. The details were extensive including names, addresses and command structures. The raid had to be conducted in bright daylight because of the security leak.

As Dante, who send me a link to the story points out: “It’s not just electronic security that
counts. It’’s also what happens when a user prints out the data.”

James Bond on the other hand would be ashamed of the most recent incident. A 28-year old delivery men thought that he made the bargain of his life by purchasing a Nikon Coolpix camera for roughly $30 on eBay.

Imagine his surprised look when he found out that the camera was filled to the brim with top secret information from Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service. According to Techcrunch the camera was filled with information about “al-Qaeda cells, names, images of suspected terrorists and weapons, fingerprint information, and log-in details for the Secret Service’s computer network, containing a “Top Secret” marking”.

This incident leads to two conclusions: Even if politicians claim that there will be no data privacy leaks they can and will happen. The second is that it will happen again. One only wonders how many hard drives and other storage devices have been sold with sensitive information on them.