UK: HMRC Had 2,111 Data Disasters in Past Year Alone
Simon McGee writes in The Yorkshire Post:
The bungling Government department responsible for losing 25 million people's personal details in the post was hit by more than 2,100 reported breaches of security in the past year alone.
And 41 laptops – many containing sensitive financial details relating to members of the public – were stolen from employees at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) over the last 12 months, demolishing any notion that the loss of two computer discs containing the details of child benefit claimant was a "one-off" error.
HMRC's record of data losses came to light as it emerged that the National Audit Office (NAO), to which the HMRC was sending the discs, specifically asked for many sensitive details to be filtered out and not sent to it.
But HMRC officials refused to separate the details the NAO wanted to audit from those it did not need – like parents' names and bank details – because it would be "too burdensome" and costly to separate them.
More
here.
(Props, Pogo Was Right.)
UK: HMRC and Government Condemned Over Loss of 25M Records
Paul Fisher writes on SC Magazine Online:
Industry figures unite in condemnation of the Government's handling of the loss of 25 million child benefit records - thought to be the name and address of every child in Britain, as well as the bank account details of carers and parents.
In a statement to the House of Commons, the Chancellor Alistair Darling explained that the data had been held on two disks that had been sent to the National Audit Office (NAO) from an HMRC office. The chairman of HMRC had already offered his resignation after the breach was made public.
More
here.
UK: Data Protection Minister Did Not Know About HMRC Breach
Tash Shifrin writes on ComputerWorld UK:
The government’s data protection minister did not know about the huge data breach at HM Revenue and Customs until he heard the chancellor’s statement in the Commons on 20 November, he has admitted.
Chancellor Alistair Darling said he had been told of the data breach – in which CDs containing the details of 25 million people were lost in transit between HMRC and the National Audit Office – on 10 November.
But data protection minister Michael Wills was forced to admit to parliament’s joint committee on human rights that Darling’s Commons speech was the first he had heard of Britain’s biggest ever data breach.
More
here.
UK: Lost HMRC Data Discs 'Endanger Protected Witnesses'
Andrew Porter writes on The Telegraph.co.uk:
Hundreds of people in police witness protection programmes have been put at risk by the loss of millions of child benefit records, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.
The missing data discs are understood to contain both the real names and the new identities of up to 350 people who have had their identities changed after giving evidence against major criminals.
The development is one of the most serious so far in the missing data discs scandal, in which the child benefit records of 25 million people - including their names, addresses, birth dates, national insurance numbers and bank account details - were lost by HM Revenue and Customs.
More
here.
UK: Most MoD's Systems Do Not Meet Data Security Standards
Siobhan Chapman writes on Computerworld UK:
Almost three out of four Ministry of Defence IT systems do not meet Cabinet Office standards, a Whitehall review has found.
Only 27 percent of MoD IT systems reviewed so far meet the new data-security standards, established by the government, a compliance review has revealed.
The systems that fail to meet Government standards for data security, include those holding military secrets and sensitive personal data.
Tougher data handling sanctions were handed down last year, following a government review into the HMRC data loss debacle in 2007, which involved the loss of 25 million child benefit records. Under the security measures, any disc, USB stick or laptop containing sensitive information has to be encrypted if it is to be taken out of Whitehall.
More
here.
UK: Taxman Wrongly Fines 10,000 Businesses
Tim Richardson writes on The Register:
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is once again in the firing line after leaked documents revealed a computer error led to 10,000 UK companies being fined incorrectly.
The fines of up to £400 were dished out during 2004/05 and concerned the completion of tax forms.
But documents leaked to Computer Weekly revealed that a "basic flaw in the design of automatic systems" led to the wrongful issue of penalty notices.
UK Cyberfraud Shuts Down Tax Credit Portal
Jeremy Kirk writes in NetworkWorld:
The U.K. tax authority shut down a tax credits Web site Thursday and a criminal investigation is underway concerning possible identity theft, a spokesman confirmed Monday.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) identified and stopped attempts of fraud during compliance checks on its tax credits e-portal, the agency said in a news release. New checks are being developed to ensure the system is secure, the agency said. No other systems were affected.
The fraud concerned internal information on workers at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the spokesman said. The criminal investigation revolves around the apparent false use of a number of DWP identities in fraudulent tax credit claims. No external DWP records were affected, the agency said.
