GCHQ has lost thousands of storage drives containing sensitive data, with the UK's Investigatory Powers Commissioner expressing serious concern that the agency still cannot determine the full scale, location, or recoverability of the missing devices, despite the issue being known for several years. The agency is working to address the problem by implementing an automated asset-tracking system, though a precise count of lost drives remains unavailable. The missing storage media is one of several issues flagged in IPCO's annual report, which also raised concerns about inadequate safeguards for overseas partners accessing GCHQ's bulk-intercepted data and a software bug that wrongly identified individuals as terrorism suspects, leading to five unlawful port stops.
