Thieves steal Egypt secrets... on floppy

Egyptian police are investigating a highly serious, albeit low-tech, computer crime involving the theft of floppy disks containing highly sensitive information on the country's national resources from laboratories at Cairo University.

The disks contained classified data respecting Egypt's oil, gas and uranium reserves as well as the location of gold and copper deposits. Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram is reporting the disks also contained information about important geographical studies carried out in Egypt over the last two centuries.

Police investigating the theft say they are questioning University employees and members of the geography department about the incident. The Egyptian authorities have not, however, disclosed why information concerning this crime has not been publicised before now.

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