UK admits losing data of 3 million people - Bible Prophecy News

Message from discussion UK admits losing data of 3 million people
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of dgrmor...@telus.net designates 199.185.220.224 as permitted sender) client-ip=199.185.220.224;
Message-ID: <47677B1D.6010200@telus.net>
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 23:47:41 -0800
From: Pastor Dale Morgan <dgrmor...@telus.net>
Organization: The Good News Ministry and Missions Outreach
User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.9 (Windows/20071031)
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Bible-Prophecy-News@googlegroups.com
Subject: UK admits losing data of 3 million people
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

*Perilous Times

UK admits losing data of 3 million people*

Reuters
Monday, December 17, 2007; 1:15 PM

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government 
suffered new embarrassment over missing data on Monday when it revealed 
one of its contractors had lost the details of 3 million learner drivers.

The revelation came weeks after the government admitted it had lost 
computer discs containing the names and bank account details of 25 
million people, exposing nearly half the population to possible fraud 
and identity theft.

The opposition Conservatives accused the government of incompetence over 
the data loss, the latest in a series of mishaps that have caused the 
popularity of Brown's six-month-old government to plunge.

Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly told parliament a private contractor 
reported in May that a hard disc drive had gone missing from a facility 
in Iowa in the United States.

It contained the names, addresses and other details of more than three 
million candidates for a theory test taken by learner drivers in 
Britain. The disc drive did not contain any bank account or credit card 
details, Kelly said.

"I apologize for any uncertainty or concern that these individuals may 
experience," she said.

She also revealed that two discs containing the details of 7,500 
vehicles and the names and addresses of their owners had been lost in 
transit.

She announced steps to tighten up the security of personal data held by 
government agencies.

Conservative transport spokeswoman Theresa Villiers said the loss was 
"further evidence of systemic failure in the government's handling of 
private data, evidence of a basic lack of competence by this government."

"Quite simply the government is failing in its duty to obey its own laws 
on data protection," she said.

An opinion poll on Sunday showed Brown's Labor Party trailing the 
Conservatives by the largest margin in more than 15 years.

A YouGov poll for the Sunday Times put Labor on 32 percent, 13 points 
behind the Conservatives. Brown's personal rating has also slumped since 
he took over from Tony Blair in June.

Finance minister Alistair Darling told parliament earlier there was no 
sign that the discs containing the details of 25 million people had 
fallen into criminal hands.

(Reporting by Adrian Croft, Sumeet Desai; editing by Robert Woodward)