Data breaches hit driver agency, building society

The Driver and Vehicle Agency (DVA) in Northern Ireland has lost two discs in the post containing drivers' data, as a building society admitted it was missing records for a thousand employees.

The DVA disclosure is another blow for data security in the wake of the HM Revenue and Customs' (HMRC) loss of two discs containing details about 25 million people.

In a statement to the Northern Ireland assembly by Arlene Foster, the Minister of Environment - as the Department of the Environment (DoENI) runs the DVA - the two discs held the names and addresses of 7,685 car owners and details of their vehicles, including the registration, make, model and colour. The discs went missing after being sent via Parcelforce Worldwide between Coleraine and the DVLA in Swansea, Wales.

Unlike the HMRC case, the packages were tracked during handling, but there is no record of them leaving a central depot in Coventry and the discs can not be found.

Foster said that the method of mailing such data had been used for years, and that the discs were not encrypted. "It is ironic that an internal review instigated by the Agency after the Child Benefit disks went missing in GB identified this method as a systemic a weakness a week after the disks had been sent."

The data was sent in order to alert drivers to potential faults in certain models of cars - a frequent reason for such data to be requested, Foster said in her statement.

All those affected have been alerted, with vehicle records flagged in case of data misuse. Foster said there would be an internal review, and that the Information Commissioner had been informed and would be carrying out an audit.

"I sincerely regret that this error has occurred and any inconvenience or concern caused to the keepers of the vehicles involved," Foster said.

Conservative shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers said: "It beggars belief that Labour is still losing CDs with thousands of people's personal data in the post... It looks like it has failed to learn anything from the HMRC catastrophe."

The breach has lead to criticism from security analysts - not unlike that which followed the HMRC data loss. Alan Bentley, regional vice president of security firm Lumension, said: "This latest security blunder will no doubt undermine consumer confidence. Unless decisive and effective measures are taken to protect data leakage, exposure to identity theft will get worse. Unfortunately, even the most vigilant consumers are not immune - it is no use shredding your personal details, if they keep ending up lost in the postal system."

Also today, Leeds Building Society confirmed that personal details about its thousand staff went missing in an internal move between floors. The information included details included on payslips.

The firm said it believed the data was still in the building, and that it wasn't likely enough information to lead to identity theft or fraud.

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