14 DAY TRIAL // Oh, God, here we go again. Another stolen laptop puts at risk the information of about 60,000 people, who requested an advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau. A public statement, published on the official page of Citizens Advice in Northern Ireland, informs the users that only the people around the Belfast area have been affected, as the laptop contained names, address, date of birth and national insurance number. In addition, some records also included financial details, such as clients' bank account number, the statement reads.
"I want to apologize to all of those concerned and potentially affected by this incident. We can say that the data on the computer is protected by 3 levels of security including a high level of encryption. It is highly unlikely that a criminal will be able to access the data, but people who have used Citizens Advice in the Belfast area, should check for anything unusual. We believe the information, even if it were accessed, would not on its own allow access to a bank account because banks require other security information and passwords", Derek Alcorn, the Chief Executive of Citizens Advice in Northern Ireland, said in the statement.
In order to reduce the damages of the data loss, the Citizens Advice decided to inform all the affected people, and a 0800 helpline was created to help any consumer who needed information about the matter. Obviously, the bureau has already contacted the police to investigate the case, but there's no other information concerning the theft. The only thing we know is that the laptop was stolen from a car belonging to one of the employees.
"It is a fundamental principle of Citizens Advice that people are able to deal with us in confidence. The theft of this laptop is highly regrettable, but given that the potential always exists for the theft of data, we have always sought to ensure that information is secured as strongly as possible through modern encryption systems", the Citizens Advice official added.