British Government Loses Confidential Data

The most confidential data on virtually every family in Britain has been lost by the British government. Someone sent two disks with the data of some 25 million Britons through the mail - but they never turned up at their destination. The government has a serious problem on its hands right now.

Everyone who receives child benefit is under threat of fraud after a catastrophic blunder by civil servants.

Two computer discs packed with the personal and banking details of 25million people - nearly half the UK's 60million population - have disappeared in the post.

Last night, Chancellor Alistair Darling was trying to head off a consumer panic after he admitted that nearly every family in the country is at risk. Police were ransacking offices in London and the North East for the missing CDs, but insisted there was no evidence they have fallen into criminal hands.

The discs, which include names of parents and children, their dates of birth, addresses and National Insurance and bank account numbers of all those who claim Child Benefit, had only minimal computer protection and could be easily hacked into by gangsters.

The loss of the data disks was not even reported internally for three weeks. Banks are cooperating to keep an eye on accounts, but cannot guarantee that people will be safe from fraud. The article also details a whole string of similar data losses - none quite this big, but a disturbing pattern, nonetheless. I'm thinking that the Labor party's days in power are numbered. This incident may tip the scales against them.

UPDATE: I have been contacted by Martin Vennard of the BBC World Service radio who is asking people to be on a call-in program the BBC is doing today. He writes: "Hi, I work for an international discussion programme on BBC World Service radio and today (Wednesday) between 6pm and 7pm London time we plan to talk about whether people trust their governments with their personal data, in light of the loss of the computer discs by a government agency in Britian."

Vennard would need to talk directly to people who want to be on the show. He would call you to screen what you wanted to say and would call you again for the call-in show. (Vennard's communication did originate from the BBC and I have exchanged email with him - all headers appear correct with email originating from a BBC server.) You can email him directly at:

martin (dot) vennard [the usual symbol] bbc (dot) co (dot) uk

If you're interested, you might want to get in touch right away.

Other Links to this Post

1. Public Secrets: from the files of the Irishspy — Tuesday, 20 November , 2007 @ 8:44 pm