About More Than Expenses?

The Guardian's Henry Porter has an alternative take on the embarrassing revelations that Home Secretary Jaqui Smith's husband charged pay per view pornography to the taxpayer. Porter reckons this story shows the vulnerability of centrally held information:

But with all the talk about the home secretary's loss of moral authority, we should not forget a crucial point in this affair, which will surely interest any politician who declares confidence in the security of public databases. For this is also a story about another security breach in an official database – indeed, there are rumours in Whitehall about how details of Smith's expenses bill emerged, following as it does a run of recent scandals, suggesting stories are being leaked from the parlimentary office for expenses claims.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of this – and actually, I suspect that it is wrong – it must underline the fact that sensitive information pooled in digital form is amazingly vulnerable. If someone can without much trouble lift this data, does it not follow that databases like the national identity register and the children's database, ContactPoint, are similarly insecure?