Data Leaks

25 Million Britons in Danger Due To HM Revenue & Customs Trouble

Personal data lost

By Bogdan Popa, Security and Search Engines Editor

21st of November 2007, 07:43 GMT

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The HM Revenue & Customs is one of the departments owned by the British Government which is supposed to take care of tax collecting and other reponsabilities related to tax administration and organization. Since it works with residents' financial details, it's pretty important to secure the entire amount of data and block the access of unauthorized persons. Easy to say but it's pretty difficult to do so as a tragedy almost happened a few days ago when the Government

confirmed what seems to be the biggest threat for approximately 25 million Britons: the HMRC lost sensitive information for about 25 million of UK residents but it's not clear yet if the details were intercepted by a malicious user such as a hacker or an attacker.

The Times Online reports that the personal and bank info of the affected Brits include "names, addresses, dates of birth, employment and bank details". It seems like the entire problem started when some internal government departments attempted to send the details copied on CDs by mail but the discs never reached their destination. That's why nobody knows for sure what happened with the details of 25 million Britons so we can't talk about a real danger yet. However, as a result of this data leak, Paul Gray, the chairman of the department, resigned today, the Times Online added. According to the same source, the reports were already received by the departments but once they became public, the tax chief decided to quit.

"Ensuring that our customers and stakeholders can trust how we handle sensitive information is one of our most important responsibilities. Given my overall accountability for the way the Department operates I have concluded that, as a result of the recent failings, it is right for me to decide to stand down," Paul Gray said in a statement published on the Government News Network website.

For more information about the entire case, you can check the main article published by the Times Online available on this link.

TAGS:

hmrc | security | uk | email | leak

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