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United Kingdom Loses Millions Of Identities
David Utter
Staff Writer
2007-11-21
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An astonishing combination of poor judgment and lack of information control led to a junior functionary being able to lose personal banking details about 25 million Britons.
 | | United Kingdom Loses Millions Of Identities |  |
A junior official with Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) burned information from 7.25 million accounts onto a pair of CDs and sent them to another office. Somewhere in transit, the information covering 25 million people vanished.
The BBC said the missing data includes the national insurance number; name, address and birth date; partner's details; names, sex and age of children; and bank/savings account details.
This egregious loss should never have taken place. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, has apologized for the incident. HMRC chairman Paul Grey resigned after news of the loss, which happened after the discs were sent out on October 18. News of the loss had been delayed as officials frantically, and fruitlessly, searched for the discs.
The Daily Mail said the unnamed junior official who caused the mess has been sequestered in a hotel, along with a 24-hour minder on hand to protect him from reporters and criminals. Meanwhile, banks anticipate a massive run of customers seeking information about the mess.
No reports of misuse of the misdirected CDs has been reported.
Update: Some wiseguy (or gal) put a joke auction up on eBay UK for the missing discs. The auction has since been taken down but a commenter on Reddit copied the text of the auction and posted it: http://reddit.com/info/613q9/comments/c02i8zb
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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