« Intel fellowships named | Main | Good news for GPL »
Bad news for Her Majesty
Looking for another reason to be happy you're in California? Then think of the data breach laws here.
It seems the British tax authorities have been rather careless with the bank account details of all those 'subjects' who claim child benefit, which is basically everyone with children. The data, just two CDs worth, went missing while out with a courier and it appears no-one signed it in or out.
Leaving aside the quaintness of hand delivering data in this day and age the real scandal is that it took nine days for the government to admit what it had done. Now that's fast compared to some examples but given what online crooks can do in nine hours with that kind of data the imperative would surely be to let banks and account owners know what was going on as soon as possible.
The head of the tax service has since resigned but it only highlights why breach laws, such as we have in California, are required. With a warning and a bit of luck the effects of the online thieves can be greatly reduced. Never mind the embarrassment of a data breach - protect your customers!
November 20, 2007 at 10:55 PM | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451b07469e200e54f9de6398834
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Bad news for Her Majesty:
Comments
Remember The Three Stooges? Well our Government has got twelve like that. It isn't only the Bank details of 25 million people that they have lost, but the details of all motorists, and details of all people who have applied to join the Armed Forces and probably more that we do not know about yet.
Posted-by: Ken Steph | 28 Jan 2008 10:22:44
BullRider suggest to keep buying on dips in markets as markets have a huge surprise for investors in coming weeks
Free Nifty Tips, Intraday Nifty tips
Share Tips, Stock Tips
Posted-by: BullRider | 5 Jun 2009 20:52:37
Spanish
