UK Government Loses 15 Million Private Records

bestweasel writes "The BBC reports that a UK Government department has lost discs with details of 15 million benefit recipients, including names, addresses, date of birth and bank accounts. The head of the department involved, HM Revenue & Customs, has resigned and his resignation 'was accepted because discs had been transported in breach of rules governing data protection' so someone thinks it's not a trivial matter. The Chancellor will try to evade responsibility in the House of Commons at 3.30 GMT. A similar leak of a 'mere' 15,000 records from the same department happened a month or so ago. At that time, they refused to say 'on security grounds' whether the information was encrypted." We just recently talked about Britain's consideration of legal penalties for situations like this. I imagine this incident will weigh on that decision.

Comments

Re:If I were Enlish

[laddiebuck]

What on Earth has this got to do with the Crown? Are you just an American highschooler who hasn't gotten past the War of Independence in your history classes?

No...

[DaedalusHKX]

Are you perhaps a British Subject who hasn't gotten past the part where your mighty armies surrendered to those sissy Americans, roughly after the REAL warriors, the Hessian Mercenaries fighting on behalf of the Crown, threw the fight by not being prepared for a Christmas day ambush? (Remember that little fairy tale told about Washington proudly crossing the Delaware? It was more like fleeing accross and sneaking back with more men... either way, it wasn't the BRITISH who were winning at the time, it was the German Mercs from Hess. That basically means that as soon as the mercs were out of the picture, British arms were far less effective, and far more easy to convince to give up.)

Yeah, seems it wasn't the Brits that were winning the revolutionary war... it was the German Mercs (from Hess), which reinforces my concept that the English have only been good at butchering defenseless populations, even if sometimes it was their own, throughout their entire history. Even in India, America, etc. Throughout history, Brits only won when the other side wasn't capable of fighting or ran out of banker finances. I seem to recall that the British were miserably lost until Americans bailed their asses out in both World Wars. Interesting, eh? Personally I think a little German rule would've been wonderful for Britain. Put things into perspective and all that.

And while we're on the subject, "the Crown" refers to a lot more than just the queen and some jewels...

Then again, when have the majority of English been anything but docile authority worshippers, the vast majority who werent, always left for other lands, I happen to have met quite a few in modern day America, just here on the East Coast, I recognize those funky accents when I run into them out and about? Gods only know how many more are elsewhere in the USA.

As for "jolly ole england..." just deserts, all aorund, as far as I care. You get what you pay for, and in the case of government abuse, socialists pay a lot, and get their money's worth as always :)