By now the whole world knows about the Edward Snowden files -the former NSA employee who revealed the inner workings of the entire United States surveillance apparatus. And he did it with the use of flash drives, those handy data storage devices that so many of us use to store work and personal data.
And tonight, one of these flash drives has caused an enormous security breach right here in Belize. 7News has learned that a flash drive belonging to a police officer in the Belize City Special Branch Office has made its way unto the streets. No one can say for sure whether the officer misplaced it or if it was stolen - but the loss is causing alarm in security circles.
And that's because it's got thousands of files, on gang activities, gang structures, gang assets and gang personalities, as well as policing strategies for gang suppression.
We have been permitted to see a few of the files from a civilian and we can understand the police department's reason for concern. We spoke with Commander of Special Branch, Superintendent Marco Vidal who told us he would not comment at this time. We do know an internal investigation is underway.
Of course, the question that arises is what is the police for keeping classified information on portable memory without encryption. We'll keep following the story.
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