London-headquartered HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's biggest bank, admitted that it had lost a disc containing details of 370,000 customers, according to news reports.
The data disc went missing a month ago after being sent by unregistered mail from HSBC's offices in Folkestone, England to the Swiss Reinsurance Co. because HSBC's electronic wire system wasn't working.
There is nothing to be concerned about, HSBC insists.
According to HSBC, the disc was password-protected (but not encrypted) and contains details including customers' names, life-insurance cover levels, birth dates and smoking status. It doesn't contain clients' financial details or addresses.
Nevertheless, HSBC said that, "We are apologizing to our customers.''
Why does HSBC feel the need to apologize if there is no harm? I thought the official government sanctioned rule in the UK on data breaches was "no harm, no foul."
Anyway, this and the HMRC episode last year does make one wonder what is going on at the Royal Mail. Is there a sorting machine somewhere that senses when sensitive computer discs are in an unregistered mailer and snaps them up?
Comments (1)
At least we now know why they chose that logo!
Posted by Curly | April 7, 2008 6:22 PM
Posted on April 7, 2008 18:22