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Brown Sorry About Sensitive Data Loss

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The Washington Post

Published: November 22, 2007

LONDON - Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologized Wednesday for a potentially disastrous government blunder in which two computer disks containing personal and financial data on 25 million Britons disappeared after a junior government minister said he handed them to a courier service.

"I profoundly regret and apologize for the inconvenience and worries that have been caused to millions of families," Brown told the House of Commons, where the revelation created new embarrassment for a prime minister already feeling pressure from recent political missteps.

A government employee has told investigators that he downloaded the personal information, including bank account numbers, addresses and birth dates, put them on two disks and handed them Oct. 18 to the courier service TNT for delivery to another government office.

Though the data were password-protected, stronger security measures normally taken for such sensitive information were not applied.

TNT spokesman David Walker said his company was cooperating with police concerning the package, but "we can't say for sure that it was ever in our possession."

The fear is that the data could be used to steal people's identities and commit fraud. Brown said there was no evidence that the information had fallen into criminal hands.

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