14 DAY TRIAL // Today's major data loss caused by a HMRC employee shocked everybody around the world but especially the UK residents who suffered the most because of this trouble. Since it was somehow a security problem (the HMRC copied the sensitive data of 25 million UK residents on CDs and lost them), the security vendors from all over the world started commenting on the matter, giving advices for a better security. After McAfee which stated that copying data on CDs is no longer recommended, the Sophos officials came out and provided several tips to find out if you're a victim of identity theft or not.
"For the companies and organisations concerned, it's a public relations disaster, but for the individuals affected ID theft can be potentially financially crippling," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "Once criminals have your personal information they can take out bank accounts, loans, and credit cards in your name, attempt to break into your bank account and ruin your credit rating, and generally look to inflict as much financial damage as they can, in as short a time as possible."
The data which may be stolen from the HMRC CDs contains names, addresses, job details and financial information so the risk of potential identity theft is pretty high. Sure, nobody knows for sure if the details were received by a malicious person but the affected Brits must take attitude before potential attackers manage to invade their accounts.
Security vendor Sophos released several tips to find out if you're really affected by identity theft and published all of them on the official website. So, here they are just like they were written by Sophos:
- You stop receiving bills or other mail; this could suggest that an identity thief has given a different address in place of your own - You start receiving credit cards for which you did not apply - You are denied credit for no obvious reason - You receive calls from debt collectors about items you did not purchase - When checking your credit history you see items you do not recognize - Your bank statements include withdrawals, payments and money transfers for which you cannot account