HMRC Loses More Data

H M Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has lost the personal data of more than 6,000 customers at protection provider Countrywide Assured.  A cartridge containing this data was sent by courier to HMRC, who signed confirming receipt of the package in September.  However the data was never processed and HMRC has said that they did not receive the package and have no record of receiving the cartridge and are not able to advise where the cartridge is now.  

A HMRC spokesman said “This was one of seven data loss incidents reported”.  Dave Hartnett Information Commissioner says it is very unlikely that any unauthorised person would be able to access the customer information due to the nature of the medium on which the data is held.  

Our view

HMRC may genuinely not have received the package, the proof is in the signature.  The reality is that greater care needs to be taken when transporting data.  Why is it that Government departments, which hold highly sensitive data, are still using such simplistic methods of transferring data by ‘disk’s? Why is it that such sensitive data is then sent ‘in the post’? This is a scandal.

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