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| CURRENT SECTION :: News | UK's most visited IT Contractor Site - 250k unique visitors March 2008 |
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HSBC, Britain’s biggest bank, has become the latest organisation to lose an unencrypted computer disc containing the personal details of its UK customers. Although the bank failed to comment about data on the disc, which was lost four weeks ago, it hasn’t denied it was loaded with the private details of 320,000 people. It was protected by a password but had no security encryption when it was sent by Royal Mail from HSBC offices in Southampton to the bank’s reinsurers in Folkestone. Reported claims by HSBC that it stored no bank account details don’t impress Paul Vlissidis, of NCC Group, an IT security firm, who described the loss as ‘basic stupidity.’ He added that for the bank, the breach means a ban on taking critical data off-site, and an end to the days of “storing hundreds of thousands of sensitive records on unencrypted media.” HSBC declined to say if it would now mandate encryption on all customer data discs, even those, like the one lost, which contains names, dates of birth and policy numbers but no addresses. The bank has informed the Financial Services Authority of the loss, though the financial regulator refused to be drawn on the specifics of the case. However, “We do expect the senior management of firms [the FSA regulates] to put in place appropriate systems of control to deal with information security risks,” a spokesman said. Last year, the FSA fined Nationwide Building Society £980,000 for sloppy data security, before also imposing a £1.26m fine on Norwich Union for lax anti-fraud measures.. This is the first time that HSBC has lost customer data, and normally the bank is said to use an electronic wire service to transmit details to its reinsurers but the service was down. It follows similar data loss incidents in the public sector as well as the more recent loss from HBOS of 60,000 mortgage customers’ details, which also went missing in the post. Apr 10, 2008 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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