BACKGROUND:
As reported by the Daily Mail, secret plans for a suite of enhanced weapons, potentially for use by Britain’s Special Forces, have been revealed in an astonishing new security blunder by defence officials. Details of research into the next generation of munitions appeared to have been safely redacted in a document marked ‘Official Sensitive’ and posted on a Government website.
But The Mail on Sunday revealed that simply by copying and pasting the text, every blanked-out detail can be read. The Ministry of Defence last night said it was taking action to correct the security breach after the Mail alerted officials to the blunder.
<p>This is a typical error, and highlights the sort of mistakes humans can very easily make in day-to-day work. Blaming such errors on technical issues can aggravate the problem; it is often better for people to own up to the error of their ways. Automation can help in securing the majority of an organisation but there will always remain a certain amount of human interaction which can often not be predicted, so vigilance and awareness are key. Like with many situations, this particular mistake had not been checked with the mindset of a hacker before it was sent out, which caused the release of highly sensitive data.</p>