Six days after the ICO published a report noting that 9 out of 10 people in the UK are worried that organisations are not keeping their personal data secure, the Chanceller Alistair Darling has today told Parliament that his department has managed to lose 25 million benefits records.
The lost data apparently included details of individuals' names, addresses, dates of birth, child benefit and national insurance numbers and some bank or building society details. Despite this, the Chancellor "insisted people were not at risk from ID fraud".
The BBC reports on the announcement states that the records were contained on 2 discs that were sent by post to the National Audit Office. Not surprisingly, the Tories are making hay with the announcement, saying that cannot be trusted with personal information and therefore that the national ID card scheme should not go ahead.
Central government doesn't seem to be having much luck complying with its data protection obligations at the moment. As we reported last week, the Treasury has recently had to give undertakings to the ICO that it will comply with the Data Protection Act following an incident involving disclosure of personal data on a visa applications website. In the BBC report on the current issue, the ICO says it is already investigating two incidents involving the Treasury.
The ICO has called the incident an "extremely serious and disturbing breach" and said:
The alarm bells must now ring in every organisation about the risks of not protecting people's personal information properly
I suspect that this isn't the last we'll hear from the ICO, so watch this space for updates.
Chairman of HM Revenue resigns
The BBC reports that the chairman of HM Revenue and Customs, Paul Gray, has resigned in the wake of the incident.
The resignation is a graphic demonstration that the powers that be now recognise data security as a serious public issue, but the Chancellor's dismissal of any risk regarding ID theft is surely suggests the government is somewhat off the ball.
If we care to believe that biographical data of the kinds described are not the sort of details identity thieves would give their right arms for, then what are? If you have someone's name / address / DoB / NI number and bank details, don't you have a pretty good start on stealing their identity?
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