Identity Theft: 7 Of The Uk's Worst Ever Data Loss Bungles

The past few years have seen millions of Brits put at increased risk of identity theft by banks, retailers, and government departments who have failed to effectively secure the personal details of their customers and staff.

1 HM Revenue and Customs was at the centre of the UK's biggest data breach incident in November 2007. The child benefit records of 25 million people were lost in the post, including names, addresses as well as bank and building society details. The sensitive information had been placed on two computer disks that were destined for the National Audit Office.


2 Nationwide Building Society customers were put at increased risk of identity theft after an employee's laptop was stolen. The laptop contained details of 11 million of the society's customers. Money watchdog, the Financial Services Authority took such a dim view of the data loss that it fined the mortgage provider almost 1million.

3 Customers of cut price clothes retailer, TK Maxx, discovered, around the same time, that their credit card details may have fallen into the hands of identity fraudsters over a 4 year period. It was believed criminals had hacked the firm's computers using wireless technology. It was also estimated that, world-wide, more than 46 million credit card details had been intercepted in the scam. This total included details from the US based retailer's 210 UK stores.

4 Personal details of three million British learner drivers went missing in 2007 when computer equipment belonging to a third party contractor, working for the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, went missing. The Information Commissioner's Office deemed the data in this case to be less sensitive than other data loss cases as the records, which had gone missing in Iowa, did not contain financial information, such as bank account numbers.

5 Details of more than one million credit card accounts were contained on a computer disk sold, for less than 100, on ebay to an Oxfordshire IT manager. The disk was sold in August 2008 and contained the account details of customers from a number of major financial institutions, Natwest, Royal Bank of Scotland, and American Express. Among the customer information reported to be on the disk was account information, signatures, mobile phone numbers and mothers' maiden names. The disk purchaser, who reported the bungle, said the information would have been obtainable by someone with just basic software knowledge.

6 A junior MOD official was in hot water after a laptop containing details on 600,000 potential military recruits was stolen from a car in Birmingham. The list of information stored on the portable computer was reported to include: names, addresses, bank account information, national insurance numbers as well as passport numbers.

7 HSBC ended up with egg all over its security procedures when it lost the details of 370,000 customers in April 2008. The data, which included names, dates of birth and insurance details of customers, had been placed on a disk and put in the post.

Calls have been made by security experts for UK laws to be tightened to make sure affected people are notified immediately by organisations guilty of losing customers personal information. An influential group of Parliamentarians has also called for data loss to be made a criminal offence to help curb the tide of security breaches putting consumers at increased risk of identity theft.

By: Tristan Dunston

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Tristan Dunston is an independent public relations consultant