Aussie soldier loses secret laptop

THE AUSSIE Defence Department has got its knickers in a twist over the theft of a departmental notebook computer from the hotel room of an Australian naval officer attending a defence seminar in Bangkok.

Lieutenant Commander Peter de Maskens, a signals specialist, was attending a week-long seminar, starting on July 4 and overseen by the Thai armed forces, on regional security issues.

He had just popped out to have a look at the red light district, as you do, and appeared to return to his hotel, drunk and in the presence of a Thai person just before 3am.

He woke up at 7am to find his notebook computer, a mobile telephone, an Ipod, his passport and credit cards missing.

Now if de Maskens were from Britain the laptop would be packed full of top secret plans including Gordon Brown's favourite jam recipe and the whole lot would not be encrypted.

But according to the Defence Department the laptop contained only lowest classification data and was fitted with appropriate security software to deny access to any information on the computer.

However the Aussie press has been reporting from sources within the spying agencies that foreign intelligence services, in particular China and Burma, may have attempted to track down the stolen computer.

We are not sure what China or Burma would be able to do with de Masken's Ipod music collection as that appears to be the only thing they'd have easy access to. It is more likely that the thief just wiped the laptop and resold it. µ