Any laptop I take home from my gov't job is required to be encrypted.

Well, the idiot shouldn't have taken it home, but the harddrive should've been encrypted. Then the loss of the laptop wouldn't have been that big a deal.

That interesting, because the 'harddrive encryption' suggestion you mentioned came out in the newspaper investigation--but a few days too late--like one of those DUH! moments . Maybe they should have come to dotTech for advice in the 1st place...& saved the city $$$$$!

Because of the security breach, I guess the only "bright side" possible, is that everyone got a free year of "credit watch" from a well-known triple bureau monitoring service.

In rural communities/villages/small towns, everyone knew everyone else and everyone else's business. Sure it wasn't the whole world, but for all practical purposes it was the whole world for those who lived there.

However, industrial societies and fast transportation allowed big cities and a large degree of anonymity/privacy. Now the internet is bringing us all back together and eroding privacy--for better or worse.

I'm reminded of a saying my dad used to use: "A lock on the door of your house only keeps honest people out."

There is just no privacy left in the world, since computers came into our lives. Every piece of information about us, where we were born, how old we are, our entire identities are all stored on computers all across the world. It would take but one slip to release that information to the rest of the world. In the end, we are practically decapitating our own privacy, if that makes sense. The more that computers come into our lives, the more information they will hold. Soon, nothing will be private, not even the Ministry of Defense's information and computers, which can i point out got infected with the Conficker Virus. Not even Military installations of the highest security will soon be cracked and it's information will most likely be leaked.

The only way to stop your information being passed around, is to just not supply it in the first place on the internet, Things like facebook and other social networks, people giveaway some of the most identifying things of their lives and simply do not realise it, even though they are trying not to giveaway this info, they seem to forget about it on Social networking sites.

On a serious note, the tussle between privacy and "national security" inregards to monitoring will always exist. * Shrug*

@ Wheezer: I like your dad's saying. Very true. And I concur - Karen's advice is the simplest and best.

Total agreement with you guys on all points.

Unfortunately, due to geographical dispersal, we often need to communicate in near real time - for which the internet is ideal; and most of the time our missives are of little consequence in the grand order.

However, there are times when confidentiality is an issue and it is to this where my concerns are addressed. I do not have recourse to a corporate VPN but still need to ensure my "secret" legal intellectual property is not compromised. In such matters, for the time being, it seems the only way to have peace of mind is to stick to the traditional meeting room discussion format. Takes longer though.

Now, where are those Luddites..?