Sheer and Utter Incompetence!

[Annabel]

This is diabolical:mad::mad:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7103566.stm

If any body on this forum thinks they may be affected by this monumental blunder, I would urge you to immediately change any passwords you have for bank accounts that may contain information that a fraudster could work out and use to access your account. Things such as using yours or kids' dates of birth, names , parts of your address etc etc.

It shouldnt be necessary to change bank account numbers if you take prompt action.

[Planet 24]

There was an internal inquiry last year as to the running of certain depts. within their complex.
What kind of p rat sends information like that through the post?

[Annabel]

it shouldnt have been sent in the first place! The National Audit Office had no right to have access to that information!

But what kind of utter dunderhead sends something like that not registered. I know some head bloke has resigned but I sincerely hope the numnut that put those discs in the post is now queuing in the dole office and hasnt been recycled to another department.

This is seriously unbelievable

[Doktor Jon]

The government moved the goal posts recently, so lots of departments are now able to share information to try and tackle problems like claimant fraud.

Is this mind numbing ineptitude really that surprising .... put it this way, just imagine what fun there'll be when the lovely shiny new ID cards are introduced :banghead:

[sesentayuno]

All comes down to exercising common sense I believe, I think people are now encouraged not to have them with all the process and procedures to help you think, so we need a process to tell people not to post personal data via post :blink:

Ses

[StoneHenge]

Paul Gray resigned over it, but they were questioning Alistar Darling's seemingly lack of action to inform the banks of this monumental blunder.

I hope nothing comes of it, and that no-one takes advantage of the possibility of Id fraud either. And they want us to have ID cards and trust them with even more personal information.

You have got to be joking!

[Eeyore]

More and more incopetence by the government and their departments

And not a word has been said for weeks. We are dealing with people and peoples lives here. Who will compensate them if some fraudster gets their bank details and clears their account - just in time for Christmas??

Disgusting

[StoneHenge]

It's not just the money Eeyore, what about those child molesters possibly getting the names, addresses and d.o.b's of thousands of vulnerable children. Doesn't bear thinking about.

Incompetence is too good a word for this government of ours.

[Eeyore]

The implications are wide reaching I agree Stoney, (and I often wonder where the "lost" post ends up)thankfully we are not affected but so many people are. Heaven help people if that disc has been found and sold somewhere, the value of that information in the wrong hands doesn't bear thinking about

How could such a mistake be made? And what other things happen that we are not made aware of?

I'll refuse to have an ID card, they will make people vulnerable, not safe

[Noise Stopper]

The one comfort I have in all this is normally once something goes into the Post Office it usually surfaces 10 years later, so hopefully most of the kids will be grown up!

Ian :nfh1:

[Annabel]

This wasnt sent in the post though, it was sent via internal mail which is run by TNT for HMRC. It really should have turned up by now, so I dont buy what the police are saying, it could have easily got into the wrong hands.

We have been talking about this in my office today and we were saying we send out application forms for various financial products with all our clients details on, we dont send any of it registered unless its got a birth certificate or passport or somesuch in it, it would be so easy for a fraudster to intercept our post and get up to all sorts of mischief with it. It makes you realise how much is taken on trust and really when that trust is broken as it has been with this incident it really makes you wonder what else goes on that we dont know about and they keep all hush hush.

[Eeyore]

We have "internal" mail here, but it's between so many offices, and we use couriers, our direct workforce people, and the royal mail too - just to deliver between offices all over the County.

Was it just meant to stay in the building? If so how can it be lost? If not, and their "inetrnal" mail is anything like ours, it could be anywhere

[QueenofSheba]

I got maile this morning that had been delivered to the wrong village never mind the wrong address. On several occasions I have had to meet people in town just to give them their mail. We also had a postman who was sacked a couple years back because rather than delivering all the mail he was hiding it. The incompetance in this country is mindboggling

[tonica]

It's not just the money Eeyore, what about those child molesters possibly getting the names, addresses and d.o.b's of thousands of vulnerable children. Doesn't bear thinking about.

Incompetence is too good a word for this government of ours.

This bothers me more than anything , it gives me the creeps thinking someone like that could hold details of every child in this country :mad:

Even if they got them back who can say the disc s havent been copied :mad::mad:

[Enterian]

As an IT consultant I'm concerned that a "junior member of staff" could make a copy of the entire database.

This sort of thing shouldn't be possible without the authority of very senior staff. It seems this "junior" staff member made three copies of the database, which begs the question how many other junior staff members have made copies that we don't know about.

I imagine the criminal underworld would pay a lot of money for this sort of data, probably more than enough to entice a junior civil servant, especially as there seem to be no checks in place!

[Planet 24]

Exactly, I thought this kind of sensitive information had to be password protected to make sure it didnt fall into the wrong hands and was easily accessed. I would also like to know why it took so long before they knew it was missing.:mad:

[Annabel]

honestly it beggars belief doesnt it. and the HMRC doesnt even have a 'duty of care' to its 'customers' - basically if they ******** up and make an error that causes you financial loss - thats tough - you cannot sue them.

[Sparrow]

Watchdog has reported on this tonight on BBC1 -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/reports/insurance_and_finance/insurance_20071128.shtml

It seems losing peoples personal details and sending them to the wrong people is a regular occurence :o

[Planet 24]

It's unbelievable isnt it?:mad:

[Annabel]

And they have the utter cheek to write to me to apologise for losing my information, but dont worry its very unlikely you will be victim of a fraud. what a load of c rap and how dare they waste money sending me (and 24.999m others) that piece of paper with a load of rubbish words on it.:mad::mad::mad:

[StoneHenge]

Waste of postage. No-one would accept their apology anyway, given they don't give a doodle about who they may have wronged.

[QueenofSheba]

I got a letter apologising about the fact that I'm one of the people that it affects. The only thing that gives me solice is the fact that I have so little money that nobody would be interested. Hopefuly it won't be us who get it but some official. Then maybe they'll take these type of things seriously.

[Annabel]

lol Queen of Sheba - maybe it will be Mrs Brown, ey?

[QueenofSheba]

lol Queen of Sheba - maybe it will be Mrs Brown, ey?


That would be funny and completely serve them right:lol:

[tonica]

After reading this i was prepared for it and recieved my apology letter today , ooooh i forgive them err NOT
Gives me the creeps thinking someone else could have the detail of my children and it is unforgiveable :(

[Planet 24]

The identities of hundreds of people in witness protection programmes are contained on the child benefit discs lost in the post by HM Revenue and Customs, it has been claimed.

Up to 350 people who have been given new names and have been re-homed after giving evidence against criminals are among the 25 million parents on the child benefit register, The Daily Telegraph reported.
It said both the old and new identities were featured on the discs, potentially putting their lives at risk and raising the prospect of a costly exercise to hide them again.
Chancellor Alistair Darling revealed last month that the names, addresses, birth dates, national insurance numbers and bank account details of every child benefit claimant in the country had been lost.
The Tories said it would be "alarming" if the details of witness protection scheme members were among those lost.
"The Government owes an absolute duty to protect witnesses in major criminal trials who are part of the witness protection scheme," shadow chancellor George Osborne added.
The Ministry of Justice referred questions to the Metropolitan Police, which in turn directed inquiries to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). Nobody at Soca was available to comment.
On Tuesday, MPs heard that further cases of individuals' confidential details being lost by official bodies have emerged in the wake of the data loss fiasco.
Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said that a number of public bodies and private companies had contacted him over the fortnight since the HMRC incident was revealed to confess that they too had lost data.
None of the new admissions were on the scale of the "shocking" incident at HMRC, Mr Thomas told the House of Commons Justice Committee.

[QueenofSheba]

They're offering a 20 grand reward for the discs which is ridiculous never mind the fact that they shouldn't have been lost in the first place. If they are in the wrong hands then that sum of money is not going to make anyone bring them forward.

[Annabel]

That is 20k of our money thank you very much!

the cheek!:mad:

[Planet 24]

Lost data blunder 'will cost taxpayers £200m in security measures' (even if no fraud is committed)

The lost files scandal will cost the country £200million in security precautions even if no fraud is committed, it was claimed today.
The figure is the likely toll on the economy caused by banks and families acting to protect themselves from the risk of the missing discs falling into criminal hands.
Researchers at the Tax Payers' Alliance estimate it will cost £20 per customer for banks to answer queries and deal with those wanting to change accounts, switch PINs or passwords. There would be further costs from helplines and £10-a-time credit checks.
Corin Taylor, research director, said: "If criminals get hold of this data, the bill could still become far worse."
Some 7.2million sets of bank details were carried on the lost discs.
As more questions were raised about the data loss, the Government responded with a blanket refusal to answer them.
Downing Street said no more information would be given out until an inquiry by Price Waterhouse Coopers' chairman Kieran Poynter delivers an interim report before Christmas.
The draft terms of reference for Mr Poynter are "to establish the circumstances that led to the significant loss of confidential data".
The Treasury, which commissioned it, insisted that he would report on all the issues raised. But Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling were under mounting pressure amid claims the junior official blamed for the affair was being made a scapegoat.
Britain's biggest data security breach occurred when two discs containing the country's entire child benefit records were lost in the internal post between the HM Revenue and Customs' office in the North-East and the National Audit Office in London.
Among the issues being raised were:
• Whitehall emails were said to prove that very senior officials were involved in authorising the actions of the junior official who has so far had to carry the can.
• The British Banking Association denied that it had asked the Chancellor to delay a public announcement about what had happened. Mr Darling was also being asked to explain why he delayed five days from being informed to telling the police, and a further two days before the banks were informed.
• Tory MP Edward Leigh said that a decision not to encrypt the lost discs had been taken by HMRC to save money after computer services were privatised.
• A further two discs were reported to be missing from the tax office in Washington, Tyne and Wear.


Source TPA

[Sparrow]

Following on from this Ive just spotted this on the BBC news website - silly man!! :rolleyes:




Clarkson stung after bank prank

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44338000/jpg/_44338936_clarkson_bbc_203.jpg Jeremy Clarkson found himself unexpectedly donating to charity

TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson has lost money after publishing his bank details in his newspaper column.
The Top Gear host revealed his account numbers after rubbishing the furore over the loss of 25 million people's personal details on two computer discs.
He wanted to prove the story was a fuss about nothing.
But Clarkson admitted he was "wrong" after he discovered a reader had used the details to create a £500 direct debit to the charity Diabetes UK.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/o.gifhttp://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/start_quote_rb.gif I was wrong and I have been punished http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/end_quote_rb.gif


Jeremy Clarkson

Clarkson published details of his Barclays account in the Sun newspaper, including his account number and sort code. He even told people how to find out his address.
"All you'll be able to do with them is put money into my account. Not take it out. Honestly, I've never known such a palaver about nothing," he told readers.
But he was proved wrong, as the 47-year-old wrote in his Sunday Times column.
"I opened my bank statement this morning to find out that someone has set up a direct debit which automatically takes £500 from my account," he said.
"The bank cannot find out who did this because of the Data Protection Act and they cannot stop it from happening again.
"I was wrong and I have been punished for my mistake."
Police were called in to search for the two discs, which contained the entire database of child benefit claimants and apparently got lost in the post in October 2007.
They were posted from HM Revenue and Customs offices in Tyne and Wear, but never turned up at their destination - the National Audit Office. The loss, which led to an apology from Prime Minister Gordon Brown, created fears of identity fraud. Clarkson now says of the case: "Contrary to what I said at the time, we must go after the idiots who lost the discs and stick cocktail sticks in their eyes until they beg for mercy

[Beth]

:doh:

a least it was a good cause ;) cant see him trying to get that back or it will make him look like a meanie!

maybe he wont be so quick to poo-bah advice next time :rolleyes:

[Annabel]

:lol::lol: what a silly billy!

[Planet 24]

He has other issues where he lives, the story has been rumbling on for a year now. http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/Public-inquiry-to-be-launched.3532802.jp

Looks like this year isn't going too well either :(

[StoneHenge]

He is a silly billy. Still, always a good cause for charity!

[mazza]

Makes you wonder though...someone must have forged his signature to set up the Direct Debit mandate in his name and I think the bank that set it up needs a good kicking ;) .

[Doktor Jon]

As if either the Hamster or Captain Slow would pull such a stunt.

Mind you even the Stig is keeping quiet about this ;)