Often happens in real life and has occurred with alarming regularity here!

Not so much corruption as people with loose tongues and careless attitudes.

Sorry to disagree. I work in one of the largest defence companies worldwide and security is so strict that you cannot plug any device (eg USB) neither extract information from the system without firing alarms. And these are security measures in a corporation. It is not realistic MI6 cannot replicate these basic protocols, specially with that sort of information. Ridiculous.

On the other hand, I know of someone that we (me and the people who know him) suspect works for the intelligence. And I say suspect because of hints we've collected through the years, nobody has been able to say for sure. Intelligence Officers, firstly, would never admit that they are IOs. Only first degree relatives are athourized to know. And secondly, they would never talk about their work.

In sum, an Intelligence Officer walking around carrying a USB with highly sensitive information and talking openly about it is one of the most stupid plots I have ever seen in long time.

i'm ok with plots where people manage to sneak out sensitive information to sell it or make some sort of profit. I am not saying is not possible to steal information. But i cant deal with plots where people just walk around with missiles plans in their pockets the same way I carry around the keys of my house, with the only intention of chatting about it in a pub. "Hey nice weather; by the way, look what I have in my pocket, just for the fun of it. Yes yes, strategic missile plans. I'm going to print them and use them as wallpaper in my room, because is kind of cool. Yeap"

Last edited by hariatu (August 3, 2013 6:41 pm)

First of all, it's a clear reference to the canon as Davina pointed out.
Secondly, it's really not that far-fetched. There's always the danger of information getting out or lost. Be lucky that this is unthinkable in your defence company.
And then.... umm.... I'm not intending to attack you but did you just register to trouble over a plot that doesn't please you?

#9 well then, if that should be the level of professionalism of the MI6, i guess they should replace Daniel Craig with Mr. Bean for the next 007 film in order to reflect better real life.

Yes, I registered to complain about it. Since when criticism is not allowed here?

Sometimes secret information manages to leak. Because human beings tend to do stupid things. Despite all precautions. We saw it already leaking on the internet or being photographed when carried open by government personell. In real life.

Don't feel obliged to be uncritical. "They don't do it to anger you personally."  Mr Gatiss' tweed today.
http://thepessimist.com/2013/08/07/how-to-be-outraged-on-the-internet/
 

hariatu wrote:

Sorry to disagree. I work in one of the largest defence companies worldwide and security is so strict that you cannot plug any device (eg USB) neither extract information from the system without firing alarms. And these are security measures in a corporation. It is not realistic MI6 cannot replicate these basic protocols, specially with that sort of information. Ridiculous.
=13px

From what you wrote I deduce you work for a private company. Sadly private companies usually are much more efficient/careful that many governmental services. It is possible for governmental employees to walk out carrying secret or sensitive information. I don't doubt that where you work there are many security measures in place but it's not the case everywhere, the WikiLeaks affair being a proof of that. 

Maybe Andrew West just put the info in the USB key to hand it to his boss (or maybe he received from his boss) and then he put the USB key in his shirt pocket and forgot about it until he was in the bar. It's improbable but not impossible. 

And at the end Sherlock is a piece of fiction whose main objective is entertaining the audience. We are supposed accept everything that happens as true (it's true in that verse) and enjoy. Of course we can have fun pointing the mistakes or the inconsistency but no TV show is meant to be a 100% reflection of reality.
 

Swanpride wrote:

I'm actually not so sure..I once looked up the most succesful art heists, because people claimed that the heists in the shows are unbelievable because nobody would fall for such simple lies. But the truth is, the most sucessful criminals simply marched into the galeries and took whatever they liked. 2009 the US government accidentally put a secret report about their atom facilities on the net. The Swiss law enforcement managed the same thing with their Schengen Information System, basically telling smugglers when and where they intended to do the controls. This in mind, it's not THAT hard to believe that the plans somehow ended up on a memory stick. Perhaps it was even his job to bring the information from one place to another. It wasn't really clear what his "minor capacity" was after all.

I don't see how they could have ended up on a USB key when almost every secure workplace has something in place that detects if a device is installed on a computer (like where my husband works).  And his entire network is completely contained at his workplace, so there is no way to get anything on or off the internet there.  I would think that since he does the same thing they do in Britain (and they actually do work with the British on many things), that they have many of the same office policies.

However, I do realize that it's just a tv show and that there is such a thing as artistic license.

Imagine if there were never any plans on the USB and it was all a ploy to see how far Sherlock would go... after all the entire episode was about Moriarty leading Sherlock on. But Sherlock wants everything to be fantastical and clever (sometimes in ways that appear ridiculous to everyone else.) And Moriarty is known to make Sherlock look ridiculous by using ploys that *look* more complicated than they really are...

But if that's not the case then it probably does look stupid to someone for whom security is their livelihood.