[Infowarrior] - Database of top-secret police phone taps stolen

[Richard Forno]

(c/o dissent)


http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2856892.ece

Database of top-secret police phone taps stolen
By Ruth Elkins
Published: 12 August 2007

Police chiefs have launched a major investigation after the theft of
a computer database containing thousands of top-secret mobile phone
records from terrorism and organised crime investigations.

Scotland Yard is concerned that crucial evidence from undercover
investigations could be lost forever or has found its way into "the
wrong hands" after the computer and other IT equipment disappeared
from a private firm in Sevenoaks, Kent, last Monday night after a
break-in.

Forensic Telecommunications Services, whose clients include Scotland
Yard, The Police Service of Northern Ireland, HM Revenue and Customs
and the Crown Prosecution Service, specialises in tapping mobile
phone calls made by criminal suspects. The stolen security-protected
server contained the minutiae of phone calls it had screened,
including the identity of the person who had made the call, as well
as the exact time and location of the suspect when the call was
made.

In a statement released to The Mail on Sunday, Forensic
Telecommunications Services confirmed that the equipment had been
stolen from its offices but denied that its disappearance would
impact negatively on current police cases.