11/26/2007: Record Breaking: British Government Loses 25 Million Data Records
Record Breaking: British Government Loses 25 Million Data Records
Another "data mishap" has experts and public frown upon common data handling and transmission practices: The British government lost two computer disks containing extremely sensitive data of 25 million British citizens. Officials would have one thing less to worry had they used EMA®, ARTEC's archive appliance.
Not one week goes by without a new data scandal.Es vergeht keine Woche ohne neuen Datenskandal. This time, it hits HM Revenue and Customs. It sent highly sensitive data of 25 million child benefit recipients on two conventional CDs. While that itself may not be shocking, the fact it did so using conventional second-class mail, is. The two CDs containing the data, never reached their destination and have since disappeared. This was reported by the online edition of the German Tagesschau.
Even if it is just to copy the records, the matter is now growing out to the public scandal for the British government. This is because the data was completely unprotected and thus open to abuse. Abuse of personal details is especially feared in Britain, which is why the majority of the population rejects central storage of personal information.
Once again, the scandal underlines the need for encryption technology as an indispensable element in electronic data storage and management. This is not a problem for users of EMA. The appliance's sophisticated security concept takes care of issues such as this one. Because all data is encrypted it is still safe even if it were to fall in the wrong hands.
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