Burton Report - Book Report/Review Example

The Burton Report of course was designed to improve the security of the information generated or used by the MOD when it carries out its everyday functions.1 The Burton Report pointed out that the MOD had wide - ranging procedures and regulations that had been put in place to prevent the security lapses which had led to the writing of the Burton Report in the first place. The security lapses had occurred due to individual employers of the MOD and British armed forces failing to comply with the already existent procedures and regulations.

The Burton Report recommendations were following the 10 principles advocated by the Harvard Business School as it reviewed the data handling and the security of top secret information procedures in order to prevent future security lapses, which could harm national security. The Burton Report recommended that the MOD should improve its training over data handling and protection in order to improve its ability to protect British national security interests and the prevention of the loss of sensitive data and information.

2 The Burton Report should lead to improved standards of governance as well as security and data protection within the MOD. If the Burton Report is going to be considered a long -term success then its recommendations will have to be strictly adhered to.In many respects the MOD's acceptance of Burton's recommendations align with government policies on governance and data handling, as it is aimed at increasing efficiency levels amongst the department's management as well as its staff, both military and civilian.

The Burton Report had shown that the MOD had the fundamental procedures and regulations in place that should to a large extent have ensured sound governance alongside effective data handling and the protection of national security interests. In that context the Burton Report and its recommendations whether or not they reflected the 10 principles of the Harvard Business School should only have been a means to make existing procedures and regulations operate as effectively as possible. The British government would have regarded the Burton Report as not only as a method of allying public fears about the loss of highly sensitive data but also as a means of showing that it can be trusted with safeguarding national security.

In itself the fact the Burton Report was published for the public to access in full demonstrated that to a large extent that the British government was actually committed to open as well as effective governance.3 The government had noted that the loss of sensitive and top secret data by the MOD was a