HM Revenue & Customs has apologised to investment management
firm UBS Laing & Cruickshank for the disappearance of a
computer disc containing details of some of the company’s Personal
Equity Plan investors, according to the BBC.
Details stored on the CD included names, addresses, account
numbers and PEP values. It was sent to HMRC in late April and
outsourced for processing to a contractor, but has now
disappeared.
HMRC has apologised for the loss. The number of investors
affected is unreported although they have been notified by UBS
Laing & Cruickshank.
The disclosure follows a string of high profile privacy breaches
in the US, including the loss in transit of computer back-up tapes
holding information on up to 600,000 Time Warner current and former
emplyees, and the disappearance of backup tapes containing the
credit card information of 1.2 million federal workers by Bank of
America.
