A USB stick containing details about troop movements has been discovered on the floor of a Cornish nightclub.

The storage device contained times, locations and travel and accommodation details on 70 soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment.

The stick was found by a clubber and sent to The Mirror.

The Ministry of Defence said that it is investigating the "regrettable" incident and is in the process of implementing the recommendations of the Burton Review (PDF).

The review was commissioned after a laptop with the records of 600,000 recruits was stolen from a car last January, and recommended that all mobile devices be encrypted.

Fifty-eight USB sticks or PDAs containing MoD data have been recorded as lost or stolen in 2008 so far.

The MoD owns an estimated 35,000 laptops, of which some 13,000 have full-disk Encryption 3 capability and 10,000 have a partial-disk encryption capability.

The remaining 12,000 are unencrypted and are slowly being phased out of service.