International   

Sensitive data lost in Britain

LONDON: Gordon Brown was on Wednesday facing one of the most embarrassing crises of his five-month prime ministership after his government admitted that it had lost personal data, including bank account and national insurance details, of 25 million Britons in an unprecedented breach of data protection exposing nearly half the country’s population to the risk of identity fraud.

The crisis came as Mr. Brown was already reeling from the damaging political fallout of the collapse of Northern Rock bank — the first major British bank to collapse in 140 years — and his government’s attempts to save the bank at taxpayers’ expense.

Mr. Brown, whose personal ratings have plummeted to an all-time low in recent weeks, struggled in the Commons as the opposition questioned his government’s competence and wanted him to take personal responsibility for this latest “catastrophe”. An ashen-faced Mr. Brown apologised for what had happened and assured that his government was doing “everything in our power” to ensure that the lost data was safe.

“I profoundly regret and apologise for the inconvenience and worries that have been caused to millions of families…,” he said acknowledging that procedures had been violated in the way the data was handled.

The data, which related to families who receive child benefits, was lost after two compact discs on which it was stored went missing a few weeks ago. The discs were lost in transit between the offices of the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in Washington and the National Audit Office in London. A junior HMRC official in Washington has been blamed for sending it through ordinary courier service in breach of data protection rules. The discs were not encrypted making them vulnerable to hacking.

Mr. Brown said that there was “no excuse” for not following proper procedures. Earlier, Chancellor Alistair Darling said the official concerned had broken the rules by downloading the data to disc and sending it by unrecorded delivery.

As the scale of the crisis unfolded, HMRC chairman Paul Gray resigned and Mr. Darling apologised profusely.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

India sets terms for a cap on greenhouse gas emissions
Now, channels hit the street
Sensitive data lost in Britain
Talks on to end French strike
Smith, Rhodesia’s last Premier, dead
Reprieve for Anne Frank’s tree
Imran Khan freed from jail
Neil Diamond reveals a secret
Empowering local people key to development: Ugandan President
‘Pakistan used U.S. aid to arm itself against India’
Anand Jon indicted
Oman lifts ban on Indian poultry products

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu