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HMRC offers huge reward for return of sensitive data discs

August 28, 2008 by admin  
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Following the huge blunder where two discs containing the bank and personal details of 25 million people were lost by HM Revenue and Customs a huge reward has been offered by official for the safe return of the information. The discs were lost some weeks ago by HMRC, and although there has been no indication that they have fallen into the wrong hands everyone affected has been contacted in writing and urged to be extra vigilant to ensure that nothing is amiss when it comes to their bank accounts.

Police and authorities have carried out a thorough investigation and search with relation to the lost data, but so far have had no success. As a last resort a reward of £20,000 has now been offered for the return of the discs. The loss of information has placed many people at increased risk of fraud and identity theft, with seven million households affected. The Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Prime Minister both had to make public apologies over the loss.

The acting head of HMRC has already admitted that the latest blunder is one of a long line of security breaches that have taken place since 2005, and stated that this could indicate that there was a ’system failure’. Amongst the blunders that have taken place are loss of data on a laptop that was stolen, Sensitive information being sent to incorrect addresses and recipients, and loss of data on discs.

He also said that employees at HMRC were determine to learn from the latest incident, adding that they were all devastated over the loss and that morale had hit an all time low as a result of the data loss. Those affected have had to keep a close eye on their bank accounts and personal affairs in case their personal information gets into the wrong hands.

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Tags: bank account, security, safe return, identity theft, fraud, data, police, interest rate cuts

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  1. Falling living standards in store for nation says:
    August 28, 2008 at 2:31 pm

    [...] HMRC offers huge reward for return of sensitive data discs [...]



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