D'oh! Perhaps Sir Ian Blair's resignation letter has got lost in the same way. Just don't judge him on one letter ok? Equally don't judge HMRC on one lost CD ... there was two? Morons, why didn't they just use a DVD?
Anyway, if HMRC can rustle up the cash they can get the disks back through eBay and everybody can stop frantically giving their kids new birthdays so that they can change their PINs to something they can still remember - "Chantelle, CHANTELLE! Mummy can't remember when your new birthday is, go and get another new PIN from the bank and we'll get you another birthday. Hmm, how many months are there in a year anyway?"
More seriously, the whole sorry scenario is more proof, if it were needed, that big government and secure, efficient, value-for-money IT project management do not go hand in hand. Remember kids, aggravated damages are available for misuse of private information, I think we can slap something together.
More on this from Charon QC, Geeklawyer and IMPACT.
Update: eBay have pulled the listing, doubtless after HMRC turned up at their door thinking they had the CDs, but there is a copy at The Register. Of the eBay listing, not the CDs, that would be just plain crazy. And in order to improve my posting average I reserve the right to branch off into restaurant reviews.
The NAO link in my comment below should be http://www.nao.org.uk/pn/07-08/0708_child_benefit_data.htm
Sorry bout dat.
Wednesday, 21 November 2007
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3 comments:
Scary stuff. When the data of half the adults in the country has been lost there is a fair chance you are one of them.
Iain Dale has an interesting suggestion that 25m people could sue the government over losing their records. Would be an interesting sight!
P.S. ebay have already removed the link.
P.P.S Why don't you post a Busaba review?
Apparently letters are going in the post to all affected families. Hope they have used a different courier to last time........
For anyone who doesn't think that this is now so last week (yawn), the NAO made available last week a bundle of documents relating to their request for the CDs, now online at http://www.nao.org.uk/pn/07-08/0708_child_benefit_data.htm. Sadly the NAO appear to use the same black highlighter pens as the CIA. Don't quite know why they felt the need to redact the NAO web address though.
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