If the UK government loses 25 MILLION records of secure details, what hope that LL ..

... keep secure age verification details?

We in the UK were informed yesterday that our government (through the Revenue department) has “lost” the details of 25 million people in this country. This is just short of half the whole population and the details are their names, addresses, dates of birth, National Insurance number, bank details and so on! (This is for child benefit, which is given from when a child is born until they reach the age of 16 or leave education).

It seems someone within that department copied all these details (who it seems didn’t have the right to do that) onto two CDs (which they aren’t allowed to do) and then posted them (which they aren’t allowed to do) and even sent them without sending them by recorded or registered mail (which is just a tad secure - but shouldn't have been done anyway)!!

Our Government informs us that they are sure these haven’t gotten into the wrong hands - for use as identity fraud, or other fraud or even, God forbid, paedophiles but as they are lost how can they know where they are? And why did someone have such ease of access to get them and do all the things not allowed to send them somewhere?

In light of this, it made me wonder if when LL go ahead with the plans of age verification, how can they ensure that the details they want everyone to provide will be completely secure? If a Government can’t protect this information when it has at hand all means available to make it completely secure, what hope then does LL or whoever they give the age verification info to have of keeping our details secure, when they won’t really have such means available to them as a Government does?

I have been against age verification from the start, mainly because I felt they wouldn’t be able to keep our details secure and for a game I don’t see why they want as much information as they have asked for (National Insurance number, and equivalent for other countries, driving licence number, passport number, other details as well as name, address, date of birth and so on). But now after this with our Government (who we should be able to trust) I am even more against age verification for just a computer accessed game (yes, I know, to some of us it is not a game)!

Anyone else now have more doubts because of this extreme lapse in security of information that leaves so many people wide open to identity fraud?

What is the purpose of this scaremongering? ANY company can have a data leak.

Sheesh.

To be fair, we haven't had an identification thread for a while

@ the OP's question : no

Sorry Cherry, I didn't think it was scaremongering, just thought it important that if such records can't be kept secure by people who have all means available to keep them secure, then I don't think LL would be able to keep our details secure with what they have available to do that!

LL's UK office is in Brighton so we should be okay.

And apart from that: how many of those 25 million residents logged into the UK in the past 60 days?

Well if a direct link to damages can be proved, then LL and it's affiliate can be held responsible. The government will just conduct an investigation absolving itself of all blame and close the matter.

*hopes they've lost me*

Nothing in life is 100% ... but I don't think there's a direct correlation between what happened and LL.

For a start ... the average Government run place is run as slack as a rubber nun's habit.

No fear here. I don't fall prey to paranoia. Is it possible? Of course it is. Is a leak going to happen? Who knows? I'm not losing any sleep over it.

A company, organisation or government's security is only as strong as its weakest link, and that weakest link is often a person having a bad day. When people are involved, there are never any guarantees.

Excuse me... "Paedophiles"? what exactly do you think a "pedophile" would do with this information? This post is an exercise in Republican scare tactics.
/me goes to put his phonebook in a safe to keep it out of the hands of teh pedoz.

I think what the OP is referring to is that the discs that went missing were the child benefit database. These contain not only parents' bank details but the names, DOB's and addresses of just about every child in the UK.

but I'm sure it'll all be ok ... prolly

The names and addresses and dates of birth of every child in the UK under the age of 16, and the names of their parents, and you can't see how that would be useful to paedophiles??

The issue with LL is that the names, addresses and dates of birth of millions of UK residents are now "lost" and this information could be used to verify via the system Integrity have proposed.

Name, address and date of birth are the only information that Integrity can get their hands on. The additional info they request in the UK is information they can't officially verify.

However it's highly unlikely that this data is going to be used for that purpose when there are easier ways to get hold of name, address and date of birth.

I guess they never thought of going to the local primary school or park.

Nevermind the vast majority of pedophilia takes place within ones own family.

I knew this would happen, it's obvious it would.

I'm sure a lot of us saw this one coming ever since they've been using computers, but the sad thing is that most people are so stupid they don't even give consequences like this a second thought when they go giving-out their details to anyone.

I'm glad this has happened, and yes, that's a 'very' selfish thing to say, but thankfully (hopefully) there's no reason for me to be on that database. It will make the lax-attitudes amoung the British public wake up and see the dangers of such mass storage systems handled by incompetent governments. If I were among the 25 million unfortunates, I'd close my bank account as soon as possible - that is unless I was prepared to risk loosing whatever I had there.

If you're prepared to listen to a government like that of the UK, and believe there is no need to take extremes like close your account, then personally, I think you're asking for trouble. My advice would be to ignore them and protect yourself because I can't see them taking the blame, or being prepared to compensate any loss as a result of this.

The next step in this nonsense will of course be the government putting the blame onto someone else, even though it's the government's responsibility to make sure that the practices that are in place are sufficient; something THEY failed to do.

Such details should be protected by armed security measures, not tossed about an office and sent by a courier - I mean how f*cking ridiculous can you get. I'm guessing the sensible 'well run' governments like that of Denmark etc are busting a gut laughing at the sheer stupidity of what has happened in the UK.

It get's even funnier as well when you consider they wanted to bring ID cards to the UK. You have to laugh - right? Put it this way, there's ABSOLUTELY no way I'll be party to it; I'd rather relocate to another country than trust such an 'outrageously' incompetent government with my life details. ID cards, just like databases, are a disaster waiting to happen (and this be your proof), and I believe they're taking civil liberties in 'forcing' you to trust them with your details in the first place.

Eat more brain food - put your foot down - get real - don't do it.


EDIT : Toned down my anger for the sake of the forum - sorry

I didn't realize pedos were having trouble finding children.

I was going to say something similar, most chidren who have been abused are done so by people they know. relative, trusted friend/ caregiver, coach/scoutmaster etc. Most pedophiles don't need a database of potential victims, they have one already in their heads.

Exactly. While there may be many concerns about that info from the UK database getting out, pedophiles should be the least of concerns. I highly doubt a pedophile will be going to the trouble to get their hands on a copy so they can find where the children are.

There's no way to be 100% certain any time personal data is released into the ether. Any of your information that is already out there, and could be compromised at any time. Essentially you need to balance how secure you feel with a given entity versus your need to have those records out there, but in the end nothing is completely safe, and you need to be willing to understand that.

Mari

More likely the list will be used to send people junk mail.

In this case -

Junk mail aimed at kids and parents.

/me just shakes my head and closes the browser.

Thank you to you and Brenda. That was my intended point. You two said it better than I could.

Thank you to you and Brenda. That was my intended point. You two said it better than I could.