Theft/acces to confidential data

BT researchers bought on e-bay 300 hard drives and checked their data content. The results are surprising and scary: 34% of the drives contain data easily identifiable to real persons or companies, some contained high security data such as log in of the French ambassador in Germany or information about US firms making missiles.
I can't believe people are silly enough to sell on e-bay disks that have not been reformated with complete erasure of data, especially in high-risk domains.

"Des disques durs d'occasion très bavards sur eBay" (JDN, 13 May 2009)

And it is no better when data is not even encrypted like the Royal Air Force's data!
Vols de données dans l'armée de l'air britannique (JDN, 28 May 2009)

"Hacked ATMs let criminals steal cash, PINs" (ZDnet.co.uk, 5 June 2009)

Investigation - no obstacle of encryption?

"RIPA ruling closes encryption key loophole" (The Register, 17 October 2008)

and on the wide use of encryption: "When Everything On The Internet Is Encrypted..." (TechDirt, 10 July 2008)

Investigation: police forces and the internet

The negative (and recurrent) view about the need for special forces and more money to tackle cybercrime: (15 February 2008)
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39292863,00.htm?r=1

and more specific problems of investigations: "German Government Struggles To Tap Encrypted Skype Calls" (28 January 2008)http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080127/10382079.shtml

with a US case that could well apply in the future to the UK: "Police Officers Can Search Your iPhone Following Arrest For A Traffic Violation" (22 January 2008) http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080122/005904.shtml

and an unusual turn to investigatigatory powers related to piracy laws (21 February 2008) http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080220/151032309.shtml

But finally for the positive side of the internet!!! "One Other Thing The Internet Is Useful For: Highlighting Dumb Criminals" (28 January 2008) http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080128/16063695.shtml

and for the use of YouTube (21 February 2008) http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080221/094928313.shtml

Cybercrime and police investigation

An often left on the side issue is the difficulties police forces encountered when investigating crime committed with the use of internet:
for an example, encryption being a nuisance (although it is supposed to create security to prevent cybercrime, rather than to be a hindrance to investigation of...) "Skype encryption baffles German police" (23 november 2007)
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,1000000085,39291017,00.htm