Nando Times

LONDON (June 5, 2000 4:29 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - Britain's Ministry of Defense, embarrassed by several recent computer thefts from military and security personnel, disclosed Monday it has lost 67 laptop computers in the last three years.

Since May 1997, 59 laptops have been stolen and eight others mislaid by absent-minded staff, junior Defense Minister Lewis Moonie said in a House of Commons written answer.

On the weekend, a newspaper revealed that Armed Forces Minister John Spellar - the man in charge of Britain's nuclear secrets - had had a laptop stolen from his home south of London.

The Ministry of Defense confirmed the theft, which occurred March 25, but said the stolen computer did not contain defense information.

It was one of a series of laptop losses from government and military officials that prompted a review of security procedures.

In early March, a laptop containing training information for MI6, the spy agency responsible for foreign intelligence, was mislaid by an intelligence officer after a night out at a London tapas bar. It was recovered by police two weeks later.

The same month, a second laptop with classified material on Northern Ireland was snatched from a MI5 security service officer at London's Paddington Station when the officer put it down to buy a train ticket.

In early May, a naval officer lost his computer and his personal luggage after boarding a train at Paddington station. The computer, reported to contain detailed information on a new fighter airplane, was recovered two weeks later by a tabloid newspaper.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), June 05, 2000