By Will Sturgeon, 16 September 2005 17:35
NEWS The UK government is once again in trouble over dodgy document management, with an apparent split within the government over new hard-line anti-terror laws exposed by a letter from Home Secretary Charles Clarke.
The letter, sent via email as a Word document to members of the opposition, appeared to back controversial plans to hold terror suspects for up to three months without trial, however anybody applying the Microsoft 'track changes' function was able to see Clarke's original wording which expressed concerns over such measures.
A paragraph which was deleted from the final version of Clarke's letter reportedly read: "The case for some extension is clear, though I believe there is room for debate as to whether we should go as far as three months. I'm still in discussion with the police on this point."
This isn't the first time the government has been tripped up by the 'track changes' function. It also proved a thorn in the side of Tony Blair's government during the dodgy dossier scandal of 2003 and highlights the need for everybody to consider what their documents say and what they really say.
Joe Fantuzzi, CEO of document security firm Workshare, said today's gaffe is just the latest example of how changes and amendments which get saved into a document's meta data can come back to haunt the sender.
Fantuzzi said it is all the more incredible that this latest blunder shows the government didn't learn from the red faces it suffered over the infamous dodgy dossier.
And it's a problem which plagues the private sector as well. Often remarks added to early drafts of documents which are never intended to be seen come to light. And they can range from the embarrassing comments about colleagues, for example - to the damaging, such as obscenity or abuse which reaches customers.
"Our own research shows that up to 75 per cent of business documents can contain sensitive information most people would not want exposed," said Fantuzzi.
Fantuzzi said sending PDFs rather than Word documents is still not 100 per cent secure.
However, Adobe is quick to defend the role the PDF format can play for business. Steve Gottwals, senior product manager at Adobe, told silicon.com the company has included encryption, digital signatures and enterprise rights management technology into its enterprise level offering which would halt blunders such as Charles Clarke's but on a wider level will create greater trust in electronic documents.
"By adding digital signatures you get authenticity and integrity," said Gottwals.
Gottwals said businesses are now demanding this level of protection and authentication where documents are concerned in order to increase the sharing of information while protecting the intellectual property and ensuring the integrity of the document travels with it.
Comments
There are 9 comments. Join the discussion
1. John McCreesh
This is another classic example why government departments should not be using proprietary file formats like MS-Word *.doc to store information.
The government should make the use of the open-standard OpenDocument format mandatory for suppliers of software to the public sector within an urgent timescale - say eighteen months to two years.
This would not only spare ministers' blushes. It would also be a key enabler of 'joined up talking' to public sector IT systems.
2. Ian Savell
Releasing gov't documents in Word with tracked changes should be mandatory so we can all work out what they REALLY think!
3. Graham Thomas
Actually with Word 2003, you don't even have to look for the tracked changes... the default setting is to open received documents in what is called "Reading Format" which by default shows the tracked changes.
Having said that, Word 2003 prompts the user every time you save a document with tracked changes - as well as offering advice on what that means and what other options there are for removing hidden information from the document. This includes a new command that removes all of the document's metadata such as Author, Manager, Company, Last saved by, etc..
4. Ruprecht
So much for the Adobe Acrobat 'black' cabs!?!?!
They obviously haven't been picking up many fares in the Whitehall area.
They don't need OpenOffice (nice try at a plug John) they just ned to set a policy of only releasing Acrobat files...just like the rest of us have been doing for years.
R
5. John McCreesh
<shameless plug>
Since you ask, you can of course create pdfs directly from OpenOffice.org without needing to buy any additional software.
</shameless plug>
However, the strength of OpenDocument formats is that they are open-standard and vendor independent. Microsoft is one of the IT industry great and good who support OASIS, the standards body responsible for OpenDocument.
John
6. Sarah
Apart from totally agreeing with what Ruprecht says about releasing this sort of thing as a PDF, which is almost taken as read these days, it raised two other points in my mind:
1. Was this letter sent with a signature? And if so they are really stupid as how easy would that be to take it and use it elsewhere because it was sent in Word format!
2. It just shows how, even at the top level, the people using this technology have not been educated properly in its proper use. Which is a worry in itself from a security point of view!
7. Ruprecht
"...you can of course create pdfs directly from OpenOffice.org without needing to buy any additional software..."
Good point, well made...possibly easier (although not cheaper I'll admit) to just install Acrobat and show folks the new button?
R
8. anonymous
While a case can be made for private business keeping some things secret, these so-called embarrassing revelations from the government are exactly the information the public should see. We need to know that there are sensible people saying 'Hold on a minute there is no excuse for police state tactics like extended imprisonment without charges or a trial' and we need to know when our government is lying to us. Companies like Workshare don't care about freedom and democracy as long they make money.
Terrorism remains in reality a relatively minor threat in the world and is merely being used as a convenient excuse to destroy freedom. I want to know who in my government is intent on destroying freedom and I want to know who is questioning their actions and motives.
9. anonymous
You can remove this problem with a free tool from Microsoft. It's called the "Remove Hidden Data Tool" and using it strips away all of the meta data.