Child Benefit Records Mislaid !

[big_kev]

Check your bank accounts !

 

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

[teresa]

just heard this on news its discusting why on earth did they put documents like this in the normal post ...... was this planned ?

[big_kev]

Apparently standard practice.....they didn't even send it recorded or registered.

Therefore they have no idea where it went.

 

 

I think it would have cost a couple of quid extra to have it signed for.... :D

 

Apparently the Chairman of HM Revenue & Customs has resigned.

I am kinda hoping he is the one who checks my Tax Returns.... :D

 

Seriously though this is absolutely scandalous, you do not want this info. falling into the wrong hands.

Bank Details, Dates of Birth, Names, Addresses etc etc .

[gregers]

:D just noticed yours bigy,

think we all need to worry where our details will end up and with whom?

[Bigjeeze]

What is there to worry about? All the "wrong" kind of people in the UK work for the Government - they're the only employer that doesn't check their immigration status or qualifications - they just ask them if they are foreign - and then give them the job! They already have access to all our records and e mail them home - from Gov computers!!

[mumof4]

Sent TNT courier with no record of the discs being collected or delivered, not a sig nothing.Its beyond belief.This information is a fraudsters dream.I am stunned by it all.The fact they have known for over a week that this happened and said nothing!!

[Saif Rehman]

The fact they have known for over a week that this happened and said nothing!!

 

Apparently it happened on the 18th of October - over 5 weeks ago! Government not told until 10/11/07 and the police not told until 14/11/07 - bloody numpties, the lot of them!

[Saif Rehman]

They already have access to all our records and e mail them home - from Gov computers!!

 

Over 9000 employees of the government work from home and last year 41 laptops/computers got stolen - God knows what sort of information were on them.

Edited November 21, 2007 by Saif Rehman

[MadBaz]

why oh why weren't the discs encrypted, it's not hard to do and if they did fall into the wrong hands then a casual attempt at looking at the info would fail, then theres the goverment intranet, why couldn't this be used.

If I did this with a clients data I could have the arse sued off me, so I encrypt the disc/media and then encrypt the data on that media and when it's no longer needed it gets securely wiped.

 

Lets just hope that whoever finds/has these discs doesn't know what they are and/or doesn't realise the criminal value they hold.

 

As for pointing the finger, this could've happened under any goverment and has more to do with the departmental managers and the infrastructure.

Facilities for secure data transfer of this kind whether physical (delivering cds) or over the ether, should've been in the IT contracters remit.

 

imo of course

[teresa]

according to this site

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=601907

there are some peeps on there that work for HMRC and they said the documents actually went missing on 8th october (page 3) ... the workers were only informed yesterday afternoon AFTER it had been made public.... its disgraceful

[jkspoff]

Don't worry about it, this sort of thing happens all the time, but we just don't get to hear about it, the fact that this has been released to the press means its just the media scare mongering to sell papers and get viewers, I have kids and have absolutely no worries about this latest government cock up. A couple of things that are more likely to have happened are:

The contents were in a document format that can only be read on a government piece of software, and the discs were actually only lost in their own 'internal' mail system. Its another case of don't believe what you read !

Edited November 21, 2007 by jkspoff

[big_kev]

Don't worry about it, this sort of thing happens all the time, but we just don't get to hear about it, the fact that this has been released to the press means its just the media scare mongering to sell papers and get viewers, I have kids and have absolutely no worries about this latest government cock up. A couple of things that are more likely to have happened are:

The contents were in a document format that can only be read on a government piece of software, and the discs were actually only lost in their own 'internal' mail system. Its another case of don't believe what you read !

 

I remember the Inland Revenue accidently deleting over a million records between 1998 and 2000, deleted as in gone forever !

The most likely scenario is that the cd's did reach there destination but have been mislaid !

Probably in someones drawer or accidently been binned.

 

The document format used is easily to access using any modern database software ( SQL ).

It could even be imported into microsoft excel ( a bit at a time obviously ).

 

The password protection is there to prevent other HMRC employees from opening it not to prevent someone hacking it.....as it should never make its way into non HMRC hands.