Data Security EU style

The Schengen Information System (SIS) holds information regarding immigration status, arrest ­warrants, entries on the police national ­computer and a multitude of personal details about EU residents. So you would think that access to this database would be restricted very carefully. Would you, would you really think that?

In fact it seems that:

"large amounts of confidential personal information held about British citizens on a giant computer network spanning the European Union could be accessed by more than 500,000 terminals."

Statewatch are worried:

"Statewatch, a group that monitors civil liberties in Europe, said it was aware of a case in Belgium where personal information extracted from the system by an official was sold to an organised criminal gang.

"It is well known that the greater the points of access, the greater the number of people who have access and the greater the chance that data will be misplaced, lost or illegally accessed," said Tony Bunyan, director of Statewatch. "The idea that mass databases can be totally secure and that privacy can be guaranteed is a fallacy.""

and so am I. This is a fraudsters idea of heaven; get one dodgy person with access to SIS on your side and the world is your oyster.