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The computer disappearances were revealed in the latest report by the parliamentary intelligence security committee (ISC), which also expressed concern about GCHQ's failure to meet the growing threat of cyber attacks, both state-sponsored and by Islamist terrorists.
Referring to the mislaid laptops, the report described GCHQ's attitude towards valuable and sensitive assets as "cavalier" and "unacceptable".
A GCHQ spokesperson today said there was no evidence that any of the material on the laptops had "got into wrong hands", but admitted: "Given the state of the records, there is no way of confirming that".
The ISC said work to tackle the threat of electronic attacks was "about one-third below the level planned".
It added: "We have been told that the shortfall is because of the difficulties GCHQ has had in recruiting and retaining skilled internet specialists in sufficient numbers."
Unexplained delays in Gordon Brown's decision to clear the report mean the period covered by it ended eight months ago.
Kim Howells, a former Foreign Office minister and the Labour chairman of the committee said today the report was "therefore considerably out of date".
He also described as a "matter of great disappointment" an eight-month delay between the time the government promised to hand over guidance given to MI5 and MI6 officers engaged with detainees and terror suspects abroad.
The committee's views on the guidance, which was eventually handed over in November, have been sent to Brown, who has the power to the censor its reports as well as over the timing of their publication.
Today's report, which covers a seven-month period up to last July, is studded with asterisks where information considered to be sensitive has been suppressed.
These areas include the money spent by MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. The one figure the report does publish is £2bn, described as the single combined expenditure of the three agencies.
The document refers to "critical weaknesses" in the way GCHQ manages its contracts, including what it describes as very large and unidentified sums involved in providing the Cheltenham-based agency with a "signals intelligence modernisation programme".
In an attempt to attract more recruits, GCHQ is using video boards on the London underground and "mass marketing along commuter routes into London", the ISC report said.
MI6, the agency responsible for intelligence-gathering abroad, is also now advertising for recruits on the London underground.
The recent expansion of MI6 has exacerbated the problem of managing data, with an accompanying risk described by the head of the agency as "not knowing what we know", the report disclosed.
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Guardian Unlimited |
