Head of HMRC Resigns ahead of commons statement today Re details of 15 MILLION child benefit claims on lost disc

[VeniVidiVickiQV]

bbc news

Worth investing in Northern Rock, oddly enough.

but surely if

"The Child Benefit data on them includes name, address, date of birth, National Insurance number and, where relevant, bank details of 25m people"

is correct they'll already have your name and address (not sure whose DOB they're talking about there) and you NI number.....then a professional fraudster (who is likely to be the only type of fraudster that could use this information) would be able to get other information fairly easily (I mean there's not a left to find out if they've got your name, address, NI number and bank details is there!)

Honestly - our mortgages are screwed up, our banks are screwed up, no one can decide if we're allowed to drink in pregnancy or not and to top it all our Child Benefit is under threat from, no doubt, spotty decrypting, government building entering miscreants! Is anyone else fed up?

Oh yes and all the Turkeys are poorly too....

Oh i know. Even the poor bloody turkeys are stuffed this year.

Coo-eee Mr Darling you seem to have dropped something

VVVQV - snork

we'd all be better off with one of these

Snork???

I had completetly missed this.

Am quite worried though as I will be seriously fucked if I either a) don't get my money, or b) someone gets access to my account.

Mind you if anyone got access to my account they would probably be very dissapointed. That said though, am tempted to empty it of what little is in there.

Yes Snork - don't you do snork?

It's the suppressed 'snork' of laughter you make when you read something on t'internet which amuses you bt you cannot rofl or pmsl because you are a) at work and so not looking at the internet, honest or b) trying not to wake your baby who has been sleeping very lightly for the last few nights and is in her cot in her room right above where you are now

Actually strangely I'm not terribly worried about this. I think that we are generally protected more by the ineptitude than malice.

Put it this way, it's probably been dumped in a pile of mail which has been sent to landfill, or it is aging nicely in some poor sod's to do pile (the poor sod who will be sacked for 'withholding' this data obviously when all he did was receive misdirected mail).

Obviously they are twonks though and should be spanked!

Oh, you see I either Snort, or Snurk. I've not snorked

Don't worry Nutcracker - there really is no reason for us not to get our cash - unless the whole country goes bankrupt. Actually with Mr Darling in charge that's not so remote a possibility as it was......regarding your account I think in the words of Mad Eye Moody 'Constant Vigiliance' is called for

VVVQV - well you should try snorking - I think you would find it rewarding

hmm , one thing that crossed my mind: maybe all our child benefits will be diverted into an account to save northern rock...?

One thing that is not clear though from the reports is:

Were the DVDs in individual envelopes or the same one? It's one thing to lose half the country's data, but twice!? Now that's what I call a day's work. Wonder if it was this guy?

Nah, not nearly enough. More money has been "loaned" to northern rock than is collected in Council Tax each year.

A recommendation from BBC website...

IF your bank password/pin numbers are in any way related to your childrens names/DOB/NI number etc change them. The info on hte discs could be enough to crack you password.

I think this is a bit extreme and someone would have to be dedicated to sift through the possible account numbers/passwords which could be created...but hey who knows what computer technology is out there.

You really shouldn't have that kind of stuff as your password anyway. Apparently there's computer stuff which can sift through every dictionary word to find your password so you really shouldn't even use something which is in the dictionary. Apparently.

God the papers are loving this. It's all going to be another Millennium Bug IMHO; days of doom and gloom prophecies and a big fat nothing at the end of it.

I reckon these discs are lying at the bottom of some massive paper drift in central office, much the safest place for them. The BBC website is full of hilarious comments about how this junior civil servant was masterminding a criminal conspiracy and will be retiring to South America shortly, but my feeling is that no-one in the Civil Service has enough nous to manage a piss-up in a brewery, let alone a multi-million pound fraud.**mentally apologises to members of immediate and extended family, most of whom are civil servants.

The government have done very little to address identity theft so far.

What's the betting their raise their game now it's their arse on the line?

i don't have this stuff as a password. I was just passing on (hopefully) helpful advice as many people do

somehow i am ed that i am actually not that shocked that this has happened..

presumably all their details (government minister and mandarin bods) will be on this disk too, so something might shake hopefully...

this is not the first time either for data protection lapses like this to happen

and i agree with others, the silver lining could be that this debacle is the death knell to id cards..

the regulator needs proper powers though, this is another scandal in itself..

Sorry SMSS I wasn't meaning You in particular

I'll rephrase to "One shouldn't have..."