Millions of bank details sold on eBay
By Stuart Turton,
Personal details of around one million bank customers has been found on a computer bought on eBay.
The information related to American Express, NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland customers, and included names, addresses, mobile phone numbers, mothers' maiden names, bank account and credit card numbers and even signatures.
The data was found by Andrew Chapman, an IT manager from Oxford who paid just £35 for the computer, which had previously belonged to Graphic Data, a company specialising in creating and holding digital copies of paperwork for financial institutions.
The machine is thought to have been sold by an ex-employee, and the company says it is now trying to recover the computer.
It has also admitted to a second machine going missing from its site in Shoeburyness, Essex.
"Any breach of these procedures is totally unacceptable and is investigated as a matter of urgency," says a spokesperson for NatWest/RBS.
American Express and The Information Commissioner's Office also say they are looking into the matter.
The breach comes just days after the Home Office admitted one of its contractors had lost the details of all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales on a memory
Related Tags
advertisement
Latest Security Features
Lessons to learn from a year of data breaches
In the year since the HMRC data breach, many more have been made public – here’s a roundup of 11 lessons (we should have) learned.
- Q&A: DNS inventor Paul Mockapetris
- Is the password ill-equipped for the modern world?
- Why is backing up given short shrift?
- Defending Europe against cyber attack
- The present and future of IT security
- I’m an IT manager, get me out of here!
- IT around the world: Russia
- Chinese web control an Olympic challenge for tech firms
- SOS Bletchley Park
Latest Security Reviews
Fortinet FortiGate-3810A
Rating: 
- Clearswift MIMEsweeper Web Appliance ENW
- NetASQ U6000 UTM appliance
- AVG Internet Security SBS Edition 8.0
- Finjan Vital Security Web Appliance NG-6000S
- LogLogic MX2010
- Exclusive: WatchGuard Firebox Core X750e
- Sophos ES4000 Security Appliance
- Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange and SharePoint
- EXCLUSIVE: Juniper Networks SSG 550 UTM appliance
advertisement
Latest News Videos in Security
Video: Q&A with Richard Archdeacon, Symantec
PlayIT PRO speaks to Richard Archdeacon, director, global services, at the information security software vendor Symantec.
White papers
Want more background on today's hottest IT trends?
Visit IT PRO's white paper library for more on virtualisation, encryption and other topics.
Register for IT PRO
You'll get exclusive member benefits including free white papers, downloads, Webinars and weekly newsletters full of the latest IT PRO news, reviews, insight and expertise.
Social Bookmark this article: What is this?