Data lost, stolen, mislaid

Public alarm is growing about the dangers of identity theft. Nearly every week in the press we read reports of data loss.

These losses are not caused by criminals hacking computers (a huge area of concern) but by human error.

Not only is it bad enough that a vast realm of private information is gathered about us. We then have to read about its loss or theft.

And only wonder “Who has it?”

Towards the end of 2007 HM Revenue & Customs lost two CDs containing the banking details of 25 million Britons. Ministers admitted they had vanished.

In December 2007 The News of the World obtained two disks mislaid by the Department for Work and Pensions containing the national insurance numbers of 18,000 claimants.

The Ministry of Defence revealed in October 2008 that a laptop had been stolen.

The laptop contained passport details, National Insurance numbers, family details, medical records, and the bank records of at least 3,500 people who had expressed interest in joining the Armed Forces.

On the 26 April '09 the Serious Organised Crime Agency reported that a Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) officer left her handbag containing a memory stick containing downloaded data on undercover agents and their informants on a bus.

The SOCA officer was on route from Quito, Ecuador to Bogotá, Columbia, to start a new job as a liaison officer working with MI5 and MI6, the British security and intelligence services, and the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

This significant data breach of 600,000 potential services recruits included passport details and bank account data.

The above are just a few instances of many such cases, not only in the UK but in the US as well.

Do you feel protected?