Boots security worker loses data on 34,000 people

Boots is the latest UK organisation to lose customer data - but this time, it was from the hands of a security subcontractor.

The high street chemist chain has today admitted losing 27,000 customer records and 7,000 employees details related to their dental plan. The information included bank account details, as well as names and addresses.

The data tapes were stolen from the car of a security subcontractor on 3 April in Bristol. Police and the Financial Services Agency are investigating, and the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has been notified. The FSA has previously issued massive fines for such breaches, including a £1 million fine to a building society for a lost laptop.

In a statement, Boots said it takes data protection "extremely seriously," and that fraud was unlikely to occur because of the nature of the stolen data. "We would like to reassure our Boots Dental Plan customers that because of the type of data tape that was stolen and the way the information was stored it is highly unlikely that any personal data could be accessed or misused."

Boots added that all the affected people had been notified.

The news comes as the Bank of Ireland today admitted losing four laptops contining details pertaining to 10,000 customers.

The breaches are just two in a long string of UK losses.

The ICO said yesterday that nearly 100 such incidents had been reported to it in the six months since HM Revenue and customs lost records for millions of people on two discs.

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