The Ministry of Defence computer
hard drive lost by IT services company EDS may have contained
details of 1.7 million people, the government has admitted.
The loss came to light earlier this month, but only now has the
possible total number of compromised personal details been
disclosed.
The MoD and EDS issued a statement saying they have failed to
find the hard drive. They admit banking details of some of those
affected were on the disc, and they are working with payments
clearing organisation Apacs to help protect people's accounts from
potential fraud.
The
unencrypted drive went missing from EDS premises in Hampshire.
The drive's loss was revealed during an ongoing audit of data
security ordered by the Cabinet Office.
The MoD has lost hundreds of laptops over the past couple of
years, which has resulted in a number of data security and national
security scares.
Defence minister Bob Ainsworth admitted to MPs that in the
"worst case scenario" the missing disc may have contained the
personal details of 1.7 million people, mainly made up of potential
recruits to the forces, along with serving members.
Blog posts
Our interview with MoD over missing hard drive
Lost MoD hard drive didn't require encryption