GCHQ Can't Find Thousands of Drives. Its Explanation Is Paperwork.

GCHQ Can't Find Thousands of Drives. Its Explanation Is Paperwork.

Britain's signals intelligence agency cannot say where thousands of its removable storage devices are. The finding comes from the Investigatory Powers Commissioner's Office (IPCO), the country's surveillance watchdog, in its 2025 annual report. The devices are USB sticks, external hard drives, compact discs and memory cards, and some may hold material gathered under the Investigatory Powers Act. GCHQ calls it a record-keeping failure. The watchdog says it is deeply concerned. Both descriptions can be accurate, and that is the problem.