The expansion of the DNA database – has it become a data security issue?
Last autumn, while visiting the London HQ of the Forensic Science Service, Tony Blair, who was still Prime Minister at the time, called for the national DNA database to be expanded to include every UK citizen. Gordon Brown raised the matter again in a speech this week. In light of continuing high-profile breaches of data and information security in the public sector, and concerns that even the highest profile information systems are not safe, has this debate become a data security issue?
What are the arguments for the database?
So what are the implications of this? The arguments for a DNA database are compelling:
1. Without DNA evidence convictions may not always be secured.
2. Police time can be saved by narrowing down suspects very quickly.
3. Unsolved crimes spanning many years can be solved and the criminals brought to justice.
A case in question centers on Mark Dixie, a pub chef from Surrey, as detailed in this article from The Times Online by Richard Woods and Daniel Foggo earlier this year:
“Dixie was regarded by friends as an ordinary guy who enjoyed a party. He had managed to keep hidden a history of violent sexual assaults and had emigrated to Australia in 1993 before the collection of DNA became routine. He was not on the national database when he returned to Britain.
In September 2005 Dixie was prowling the streets in the early hours when he chanced upon Sally Anne Bowman, an 18-year-old aspiring model, returning home. He pounced in the driveway of her house and stabbed her repeatedly, inflicting wounds that one detective said were “off the scale”. Dixie sexually defiled Bowman’s corpse.
Although police recovered DNA samples of the attacker, the database held no match. For nine months the murder investigation made little progress. The police, believing the killer lived locally, had a list of more than 22,000 suspects.
Then in June 2006, Dixie was arrested after a fight broke out among football fans watching an England match in a pub.
The police were puzzled as to why he burst into tears as he was taken away. Dixie knew what was coming. His DNA was taken and within days was matched to the Bowman murder case. Dixie was sentenced to life.”
And the arguments against?
But what about the arguments against a DNA database?
1. Is the data held accurate? Or can mismatches occur?
2. Is this data secure and safe from malicious interference?
3. How would it be used and can we be sure it won’t be used inappropriately?
Expanding on point two you have to look at recent and past high profile breaches in data security, and the government’s record on securing data. Most recently there is the case of a “serious” security breach after a civil servant lost top-secret documents containing the latest intelligence on al-Qaeda!
Then we have the Prime Minister who used a speech on the June 17th to claim the government’s policies of creating a DNA database were protecting civil liberties rather than eroding them. His bid, however, to champion the security agenda was undermined when it emerged that Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary who has been spearheading a “hearts and minds” campaign to fight extremism, had her laptop stolen from her constituency office in Salford! The computer contained restricted government files on extremism and defence, although aides stressed none of the files were “top secret”!
Conclusion
To conclude I would suggest that the majority of the general public would welcome such a database, but ONLY if they knew that:
• The data held was 100% secure
• That it would not be used or accessed inappropriately
But as history has proven that neither of these points, currently, have the remotest chance of being met, we have compelling arguments against an idea that should, in reality, stand up on its own!
This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 11:13 am and is filed under Articles, Business Advice, Data Security . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 4th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
See additional article here