Nationwide is fined
February 14, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Banking
The Nationwide Building Society has received a huge fine after security flaws at the firm were exposed.
A laptop, belonging to a Nationwide employee, was stolen last year, potentially exposing around eleven million customers’ details.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) says that the bank did not act quickly enough, not launching an investigation until three weeks after the laptop was taken.
The firm even allowed the employee to go away on holiday without asking what information was contained on the hard drive.
In response, the FSA has fined Nationwide for £980,000, even though no money was lost by any customer as a result of the theft.
“We have extensive security procedures in place, but in this isolated incident our systems of control were found wanting,” said Philip Williamson, Nationwide’s chief executive.
“We have made changes to fill the gap and improve our procedures further.”
Both the police and the FSA have said that they believe the laptop was stolen purely for computing reasons and the thieves were probably unaware of the information that it contained.
We can at least ensure that we do our bit to ensure we are banking safely by shredding any unwanted documents which have our details on them.
