There was fresh embarrassment for Britain's Labour government yesterday as defence secretary Des Browne confirmed that an investigation into the theft of a laptop containing details of 600,000 people had uncovered two other such thefts since 2005.
At the same time, DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson voiced major suspicions after the disclosure that a laptop containing confidential information relating to the inquiry into the murder of loyalist paramilitary Billy Wright has been stolen from a barrister's chambers in London.
The Northern Ireland Office was informed at the weekend of the theft of the laptop belonging to a barrister representing the Northern Ireland Prison Service.
The father of Billy Wright, David Wright, said he was "concerned at the theft" but declined to comment further until more details were released. However, Mr Donaldson said the nature of the information on the stolen laptop was bound to raise suspicions. He told BBC Radio Ulster: "I doubt this was a random incident. I suspect there was more to it than meets the eye. I doubt if someone from a paramilitary background was involved. Perhaps it involves people who don't want certain things coming out at the inquiry.
"This was a very specific job carried out by someone who had the task of going into the place to remove the laptop."
Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward was said to view with "serious concern" the crime now being investigated by the City of London police.
At Westminster, meanwhile, Conservative defence spokesman Liam Fox said the loss of three laptops containing the confidential data of citizens amounted to "a damning picture of MoD incompetence".
He accused the Labour government of adopting "a cavalier approach" to the confidentiality of citizens' details.
Channel 4 News last night reported that from today British civil servants will not be allowed to take computers containing unencrypted data from their offices.
That move did not come in time to spare the defence secretary's embarrassment, or that of a government whose plan for a compulsory system of ID cards has been undermined by breaches of procedures and the loss of data affecting millions of people across the UK.
Mr Browne told MPs the probe into the loss of a laptop containing personal details of 153,000 people who had applied to join the services had followed its theft from a car in Birmingham on January 9th. The information on the laptop, which included bank details of some 3,700 people, was not encrypted. The same was true in respect of the data on two further laptops found to have been stolen since 2005.