Colonial Files ‘Burned To Keep Secrets’

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Companies keen to ensure their secret information does not fall into the wrong hands may benefit from shifting to electronic storage, as this could mean retaining far better control over what happens to the data.

A tale of how big an undertaking it can be to remove data stored on paper has emerged through the declassification of documents owned by the Foreign Office.

The Guardian reports that the handover of offices that accompanied the end of empire meant that, in country after country, the widespread destruction of documentation took place. It noted that this occurred under the instruction of colonial secretary Iain Macleod in 1961 that any documents that "might embarrass Her Majesty's government" should not be allowed to fall into the hands of the new independent governments.

He added that any material that could "embarrass members of the police, military forces, public servants or others e.g. police informers", or "be used unethically by ministers in the successor government" should go the same way.

Examples of places where bonfires of paperwork were required included Northern Rhodesia, Kenya, Belize, British Guiana and Brunei. In other cases, sensitive documents were shipped back to Britain, while others were given codes to indicate they should only be given to people of British or European descent.

While all this implies that there may have been much wrongdoing that diplomats and ministers wanted to conceal, companies and organisations in possession of large quantities of data kept on paper may have perfectly legitimate reasons to keep secret entirely legal and reasonable activity. For instance, payroll data, sensitive information on individuals such as patient records and future plans for a firm may come into this category.

By storing documents safely by electronic means, it would ensure that there are no paper copies that could get into the wrong hands, with security based on encryption and – via remote data centre expertise – the latest technology and knowledge to stave off cyber criminals.

Information security is something major companies need to improve, science minister David Willetts said this week, after a survey by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills found only 14 per cent of FTSE 250 firms in Britain give regular thought to cyber security issues.

Storetec News/Blogs."http://www.storetec.net/news-blog/colonial-files-burned-to-keep-secrets/". Colonial files 'burned to keep

secrets'. November 29, 2013. Storetec.