Monty Python comes to life
I had to do a double-take when I read this: the British Government has lost confidential identity and financial information for 25,000,000 of its citizens -- nearly half the population. How did this happen? Was it the result of a devious espionage operation or an electronic theft by high-tech burglars? Nope. In a move worthy of Python's famous Upper Class Twit of the Year contest, they put the CDs in the mail, and now they're lost:
Everyone who receives child benefit is under threat of fraud after a catastrophic blunder by civil servants.
Two computer discs packed with the personal and banking details of 25million people - nearly half the UK's 60million population - have disappeared in the post.
Last night, Chancellor Alistair Darling was trying to head off a consumer panic after he admitted that nearly every family in the country is at risk. Police were ransacking offices in London and the North East for the missing CDs, but insisted there was no evidence they have fallen into criminal hands.
The discs, which include names of parents and children, their dates of birth, addresses and National Insurance and bank account numbers of all those who claim Child Benefit, had only minimal computer protection and could be easily hacked into by gangsters.
But, wait! It gets better. These discs were lost not once, but twice! A first set was sent through the agency's internal mail, winding up God knows where. Then a second set was sent registered through the postal service, only to drop off the face of the Earth.
Britain is already reeling from a panic that nearly sank the Northern Rock bank, and Chancellor Darling has been under fire for other blunders in his department. With this latest fiasco, and it's hard to overstate the implications, not only may the Chancellor's days in office be numbered, but the Labour Party's overall, as well.
(hat tip: Blue Crab Boulevard)
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