UPDATED: Data thefts and losses in the UK - Timeline

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16 November 2006: Laptops containing details of the Metropolitan Police's payroll are stolen from LogicaCMG, the company responsible for the Met's pay and pension services. The Police work with credit reference agencies, payments association APACS and fraud prevention service CIFAS to take action to protect staff from identity theft.

17 January 2007: Hundreds of documents containing sensitive personal data found dumped on a roundabout in Exeter. The data contained benefit claims, passport photos and mortgage payments.

14 February 2007: Building Society Nationwide is fined nearly £1million by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) after a laptop containing customer account details is stolen from an employee's home.

1 June 2007: A laptop is stolen that contains the payroll information of over 500 employees at the Eden Project. The employee looking after it worked for payroll company Mooreplay. The bank details, national insurance numbers and salary details of around 500 staff were at risk.

6-7 August 2007: A server is stolen from the head offices of Forensic Telecommunications Ltd (FTS), containing administrative and forensic data. FTS is a company that provides police with telephone evidence in connection with their investigations.

24 August 2007: The online recruitment firm Monster discloses details of a breach which had resulted in the details of 1.3 million job seekers being stolen. Monster takes five days to tell users of the situation, which was caused by hackers breaking into the site's password protected CV library.

21 September 2007:A staff member from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) discovers that a laptop has been stolen from the boot of their car containing password protected and encrypted data relating to 400 people. The laptop contained details of the savings customers of investment firms. HMRC admitted the loss was entirely its fault, while security vendors question why the data was on a portable device and printed out to begin with.

5 November 2007: IT PRO reported that HMRC lost a CD containing the details of 15,000 Standard Life pension customers. The CD has gone missing in transit from Newcastle to Edinburgh while being carried by an external courier. The information was sufficient to be used by fraudsters to steal customers' identities.

20 November 2007: It emerged that HMRC lost two disks in transit containing the personal and banking details of 25 million people receiving child benefit. The disks held information including names, addresses, dates of birth, national insurance numbers as well as bank and building society numbers. The loss resulted in the resignation of Paul Gray, Head of HMRC. It is the UK's worst security breach and one of the world's biggest ID protection failures. The CDs have never been found.

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