US military data on eBay hard drive

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More than 300 hard disks have been studied by researchers who uncovered other sensitive information including bank account details, medical records, confidential business plans, financial company data, personal ID numbers, and job descriptions.

The drives were bought from the UK, America, Germany, France and Australia through computer auctions, computer fairs and eBay.

The exercise was carried out by BT's Security Research Centre in collaboration with the University of Glamorgan in Wales, Edith Cowan University in Australia and Longwood University in the US.

A spokesman for BT said they found 34% of the hard disks scrutinised contained "information of either personal data that could be identified to an individual or commercial data identifying a company or organisation".

Most surprising was the discovery of a disk bought on eBay that revealed details of test launch procedures for the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence) ground to air missile defence system, used to shoot down Scud missiles in Iraq.

The disk also contained security policies, blueprints of facilities and personal information on employees including social security numbers, belonging to technology company Lockheed Martin - which designed and built the system.

Two disks appear to have been formerly used by Lanarkshire NHS Trust to hold information from the Monklands and Hairmyres hospitals including patient medical records, images of x-rays, medical staff shifts and sensitive and confidential staff letters.

In Australia, one disk came from a nursing home and contained pictures of patients and their wounds. Confidential material including network data and security logs from the German Embassy in Paris were also discovered on a disk from France.

Other information uncovered included the trading performances and budgets of a UK-based fashion company, corporate data from a major motor manufacturing company and the details of a proposed 50 billion dollar currency exchange through Spain involving a US-based consultant.