Saturday 29 June 2024

I Have Always Thought,

that the UK government's secrets are not particularly safe,


image Microsoft, hardly a week goes by without news that a government owned laptop or telephone is left on a train, or coffee shop, (pub), I say hardly a week but it is a lot more serious than that, would you believe 38 a week go missing! apart from the cost of replacing them, according to this article, some £944,092, it is the incalculable loss of secret information on them, so I was surprised to see the the UK government is not the only one to make security breaches, especially as in this case it was one of the strictest regimes in the world, China, 

photo: Getty Images/Unsplash+ a military enthusiast surnamed Zhang, in China bought some military books, that contained state secrets, it happened like this, he was walking home one day when he noticed two bags filled with books at the door of a waste paper collection point, they were not only in pristine condition but also related to military topics, so he asked the recycling centre if he could buy them, he paid 6 yuan for them, at today’s rate .65 pence or .83 cents, so how did this happen? Apparently state security agents found that two military employees tasked with shredding more than 200 classified books instead sold them to a recycling centre as paper waste for 20 yuan, at today’s rate £2.18 or $2.75, “Mr. Zhang thought to himself that he had ‘bought’ the country’s military secrets and brought them home,” the Ministry’s post read, “but if someone with ulterior motives were to buy them, the consequences would be unimaginable!” the original story although old is here, glad to hear that we are not the only country to be lazy with our state secrets, as an aside I could find no mention of what happened to the two military employees tasked to shred the books.


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