Have your say after police are called in to help find computer discs containing personal details of every family in the country claiming child benefit which have gone missing.
The information was on two computer discs which were sent by unrecorded delivery by a junior member of staff at the Revenue and Customs to the National Audit Office. They never arrived.
The chairman of the HMRC board, Paul Gray, has resigned. The Chancellor, Alistair Darling, apologised to the Commons and has ordered an inquiry.
The discs contain names, addresses, dates of birth and bank and national insurance details of 25 million people, raising concerns over the risk of identity fraud.
Do you feel at risk by the security breach? Or is it a political storm in a teacup?
Give us you views by filling out the comment form below.
26 Comments
It’s fine for the Chancellor to say the banks will cover any fraud - who will refund us for the stress and worry it will cause if money does disappear from our accounts?
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So it’s OK for the goverment to loose all these bank details and any fraud, the tax payer will pick up the bill.What is going on with this goverment run by a leader nobody voted for !! They are on ther way out next time. They can perhaps pay all this money back from the fraud from the millions of pounds they are going to steal back from the disabled and vulnerable people in this country !!
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Mr Darling and his advisors have alredy lost £40BILLION
What is a mere 25 Million records
roll on the election
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Absolutely nuts. I as do many others strive to keep my personal data secure and then some idiot at HMRC, who obviously doesn’t give 2 sh*** about following procedures opens the floodgates for identity theft.
Why was a junior handling this to begin with? Nice to know all our data is in safe hands at the other end.
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Another Brown disaster! Blair repeating?
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no wonder they lost the discs. look at the pair of em . thay dont even know what day it is
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Can you believe these people sent the discs through the post?
To be honest, I wouldn’t trust Royal Mail to deliver a Christmas card let alone something as obviously important as this.
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“HAVE MY SAY” !! Wot without being censored or modded!!
Well here goes;
No one has been safe for years under this Government of incompetents
Pointless wars creating suicide bombers in Britain blowing up innocent folk.
Children being killed on the streets of Britain full of guns and knives.
Go into hospital for a routine op to die from dirty wards.
Now, put at risk from personal information being lost!! what can one say.
And they want to bring in ID cards, if it wasn’t so serious it would be a Joke!!
We are all at an alltime risk with this lot of incompetents in charge.
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As a former Inland Revenue employee I will first say that I am not the least bit surprised by this. Government departments are always losing data or accidentally giving it away. I have seen it happen with my own eyes.
What concerns me about this (apart from the fact that my details are included with the 25million) is that the government will still wish to go ahead with ID cards. Do you really trust a government department (or for that matter anybody) with ALL your personal details plus biometrics? I don’t. It is a recipe for disaster.
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these disces were not sent by royalmail they were sent by T N T one of the companys trumpted by the goverment as the new way
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this government are turning our country in to a banana republic,why don’t the people of this country sue them there useless the lot of them it’s time for a REAL change of government now,i bet the illegal asylum seekers where guarding these disc’s.
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Nice to know the government are looking after our records (YEH WHATEVER) like the inland revenue buggering up all there so called high security work ( How many of you watched Watchdog on monday night on BBC 1) Too much technology, pity no one knows how to use it other than the identity fraudsters!!! I didn’t have much faith in the government anyway, I suppose you can imagine how i feel now as well as 25 million other people!
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Now, top reason for “NO ID cards”!
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I’m not really worried because I’m sure this government will have taken the basic security step of making the information on the disks password protected. Unless of course they sent the passwords with the disks. But even that don’t matter because they would have lost the passwords as well.
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TNT don’t deliver their post on the final journey to the door, they pay Royal Mail to do that.
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What will new labour do next? We Ex Pats find it hard to swallow all the dumb tales that we hear. Kick the dumb clucks out.
TeeC
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If any high street bank puts records in a bin by accident, they get a massive fine. Who is fining the government over this latest catastrophe? Ah, nobody as nobody can! Double standards comes to mind.
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I think it is disgraceful that this sort of information is being handled by a junior and sent through the post. These days I wouldnt trust royal mail with anything.
How can this government allow such sensitive information go through such an unreliable route.
I understand that the banks will cover any fraud etc but what about the struggle people are going to face (particularly this time of year) while it is being sorted and paid back.
Is the junior member of staff being dismissed in this or they going to have their identity covered up and let off the hook?
Completely unbelievable
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Unbelievable.
Who can we trust, not the government thats for sure.
When is enough enough?
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Ah well, what’s a couple of computer discs to a government that can lose half a million illegal immigrants?
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Want to hear a joke???
The British Government
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IS THIS THE WORST BRITISH GOVERNMENT IN OUR HISTORY LIE AFTER LIE
1,SOLD US OUT TO BRUSSELS
2,CASH FOR HONOURS ETC ETC
3,FUEL 1.13 ALITRE AND RISING
4,ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS GUARDING OUR INTERESTS
5,WEAPON IN IRAQ LIES
6,MORE SPIN THAN A SPINNINGTOP
7,A LEADER WE DID NOT VOTE IN
8,TAX ON TAX
9,ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT NUBERS LIES AFTER LIES 300,000 NOW 1.6 MILLION AND RISING
10,PRIVATE DISC’S LOST
11 ID CARDS FRAUD WILL BE RIPE
,CAN THE E+S DO A POLL ASKING ARE THE LABOUR GOVERNMENT THE WORST IN HISTORY.
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The Discs are probably now in the safe hands of an Al-Qaida cell having all their operatives stealing your identity. They will be claiming your benfits and spending your money. Even entering the country as you. Soon it will be you who is credit black-listed because of them. It will be you in court due to fraudulent claims scared yet? You ought to be.
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Its appaling to see all my fellow colleagues worrying about thier identitys, bank account etc.
If discs were so important why wasnt they hand delivered in the first place, at least this type of havoc would not have been created.
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I feel sorry having to see all my fellow colleagues worrying about thier identitys, bank accounts etc.
If the discs were so important why wasnt they hand delivered in the first place ??????????
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I thought the paramilitaries were the criminals, their nothing compared to the British government present and past.
They have stole and squandered more public money and cost more innocent lives in unnecessary wars than all the paramilitaries put together, the British people should rise up and put the blood suckers out of business and find a better way to run the country.
The present House of Commons chamber is the laughing stock of the world; it’s shameful the way the supposed rulers of this country get on,
Rob.
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