Major General Gerry Berragan was pick-pocketed as he traveled by train and immediately notified the Ministry of Defence in London of the theft. The BlackBerry device may have had lots of top secret info on it as it is capable of storing and sending thousands of emails and could have revealed military secrets. The security breach was considered so serious that the new Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth is said to have been informed and ordered an investigation on the matter.  Let’s hope he has some sort of password at least on his device.

“Maj Gen Berragan will have had access and briefing papers on a myriad of secret defence subjects,” a security source told the Sun newspaper. But despite concerns about China overtaking Russia in spying on the West and its military secrets, a senior MoD source told the Sun the BlackBerry theft was not thought to be suspicious. “We do not think Maj General Berragan was targeted by Chinese agents. He was in civilian clothes and we think it was opportunistic pickpocketing,” the source was quoted as saying. The MoD said in a statement that no sensitive information had been compromised. “We are fully investigating this incident,” the spokesman added.

-by Otoniel Bruno

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