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| Thread ID: 84857 | 2007-11-21 03:37:00 | Brits Bash Bungled Baby Bios | SurferJoe46 (51) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 613534 | 2007-11-21 03:37:00 | The British government had the unhappy task today of advising 7 . 25 million UK families that two CDs full of their personal data have gone missing in the mail, potentially exposing them to identity theft and other nasty business . The disks held Child Benefit information on every family in Britain with a child under 16 and were sent by courier -- not registered or recorded mail -- from HM Revenue & Customs to the National Audit Office, and they never showed up . HMRC Chairman Paul Gray fell on his sword and resigned, while officials told the 25 million people affected that while there was no sign of foul play yet, they should keep an eye on their accounts for any unusual activity . Lawmakers and politicians were in a lather over the breach . Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said: "Let us be clear about the scale of this catastrophic mistake -- the names, the addresses and the dates of birth of every child in the country are sitting on two computer discs that are apparently lost in the post, and the bank account details and National Insurance numbers of 10 million parents, guardians and carers have gone missing . Half the country will be very anxious about the safety of their family and the security and the whole country will be wondering how on earth the government allowed this to happen . " And Liberal Democrat Acting Leader Vince Cable wondered, "Why does HMRC still use CDs for data transmission in this day and age? The ancient museum pieces it is currently using for computing must be replaced . After this disaster how can the public possibly have confidence in the vast centralized databases needed for the compulsory ID card scheme . Where does the buck stop after this catalogue of disasters?" C/P by permission via subscription to source . Extra link here . ( . guardian . co . uk/economics/story/0,,2214109,00 . html" target="_blank">politics . guardian . co . uk) |
SurferJoe46 (51) | ||
| 613535 | 2007-11-21 09:10:00 | Mops in poms. | rob_on_guitar (4196) | ||
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