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Theft Puts Skipton Customers At RiskThousands of building society customers are at risk of identity fraud after a laptop containing their personal details was stolen. The incident is the latest of a rash of data breaches that have affected tens of millions of Britons and led to calls for tougher laws. Skipton Financial Services (SFS), a subsidiary of Skipton Building Society, said that details of 14,000 customers had been lost after a computer was stolen from Moore Stephens Consulting, a London-based IT contractor. The information belonged to customers with funds administered by Fidelity FundsNetwork and included names, addresses, national insurance numbers and fund investment details. It was loaded on a laptop stolen from a workers locker in “a locked facility” along with other personal items on the evening of December 11. &&&§ionName=IndustrySectorsBankingFinance,mywindow,menubar=0,resizable=0,width=615,height=655); Related Links How to guard against ID fraud threat Law on data protection requires proof of actual harmThe accounts were frozen after the theft. Simon Holt, the managing director of SFS, said that the company was not aware of any fraudulent activity and that police were investigating. Jamie Cowper, of PGP Corporation, a data-protection specialist, said that it was worrying that SFS had made no mention of the data being encrypted but had merely said it was “password protected”. Mr Cowper said: “The risk is that the information is used to assume fraudulent identities.” The breach - the latest in a string of similar incidents — hands further ammunition to the Information Commissioners Office. The watchdog is calling for a radical shake-up of the UKs data laws that would make careless handling of data a criminal offence and hold company bosses directly responsible. The Yorkshire-based Skipton could also face sanctions from the Financial Services Authority. In February, Nationwide, a rival lender, was fined £980,000 by the City regulator after a laptop holding customer details was stolen from an employees house. However, it is thought that Skiptons decision to reveal the breach to the FSA promptly will work in its favour. Nationwide, by contrast, was not aware of the wealth of information carried on its stolen computer and did not give an alert until three weeks after the theft. The data lost by Skipton does not include bank or building society account details. However, it has been forced to block affected accounts and has written to customers to assure them that their investments are safe. It is issuing them with new account numbers and has offered 12 months free credit checks and alert services through the credit reference agency Callcredit. The latest lapse follows the loss of two discs containing information on about 25 million people by HM Revenue & Customs last month and comes only days after the details of three million British learner drivers were lost in Iowa, in the United States, by Pearson Driving Assessments, a private contractor working for the Driving Standards Agency. It also emerged this week that the loss by the Revenue of details of more than 6,500 customers of Countrywide Assured, the life assurance and pensions company, had gone unnoticed for more than a month. Skipton said in a statement: “While neither SFS nor Fidelity FundsNetwork were responsible for the loss of this laptop, both have taken all steps they can to mitigate any risk to their clients.” Tag CloudExternal InformationAdditional InformationU.S. Urges Lenders to Revise Standards on Granting Credit...Symantec Planning to Cut Some Jobs... Turning an Evaluation Into More Pay... Doubt Cast on 2 Drugs Used to Lower Cholesterol... Where Am I?News Main Page - Business - Theft Puts Skipton Customers At Risk |
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