Six other British data discs 'are missing'

(((Oh come on – ONLY six?! Can you imagine how many disks are missing inside the US Homeland Security Agency?)))

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7111056.stm

Link: BBC NEWS | Politics | Six more data discs 'are missing'.

Last Updated: Saturday, 24 November 2007, 17:08 GMT

"(...) HM Revenue and Customs has confirmed that a further six data discs have gone missing in transit between its offices in Preston and London.

"The discs, which were reported missing on 30 October, contained recorded conversations between a member of staff and a customer making a complaint.

"Police are still searching for two computer discs containing the details of 25m Child Benefit claimants.

"The HMRC says evidence suggests the discs are still on their premises.
(((Imagine the public relations havoc when and if the British police actually FIND
these missing disks. "Oh look, here they were all along. Behind the microwave where we make the popcorn. Ha ha ha, much ado about nothing!" Can you imagine any British voter feeling happier about this outcome? "So, you keel-hauled us through this complete moral panic for weeks on end over NOTHING but your own sick paranoia? I'll spend the last pound in my compromised bank account to drive your party from power!")))

See sequence of events in the lost CDs scandal (((can't tell the players without a scorecard)))

"The second lost package, containing six discs, went missing after being sent from a tax credit office in Preston to HMRC's Whitehall headquarters in London. (((One package – six disks.)))

"They were despatched through the same internal mail system used by those who sent the two missing Child Benefit discs, which have not been seen since being posted at HMRC in Tyne and Wear on 18 October.

"Police search

"Police are now focusing their search for the lost Child Benefit records discs on depots of the courier company TNT after completing inquiries at HMRC's offices.

(((Shipping company: "Who us? We never!")))

"A spokesman for TNT confirmed its premises in London had been searched on Friday night and said the company was fully co-operating with police.

"But he added that it was impossible to say whether the CDs had entered TNT's system.

""We have been given absolutely no proof either from HMRC or from the police that these discs ever entered the TNT system, let alone that we have mislaid them.

"HMRC confirmed to us last night that they use two other companies for internal mail." (...)

(((Meanwhile, a private accounting firm appears to be gleefully thumbing its way through the highly private banking details of half the British population...)))

"On Friday, it also emerged that the NAO had handed unencrypted discs containing details of all Child Benefit claimants to accountants KPMG.

The NAO said they had been delivered by hand and returned safely. (((Wait a minute...
Alice gives Bob two compact disks, leaves room, the disks are returned "safely"? Does not compute!)))

"Meanwhile, (((all too predictably))), a row has broken out between the government and the banks over who will pay the cost of any resulting fraud from the loss of the two Child Benefit discs.

Both the chancellor and the prime minister told MPs the banks would repay customers who lost money.

But in a letter, signed by the British Bankers' Association, the Building Societies Association and the Payment Service APACS which is responsible for security of money transfers, the banks have told the chancellor that he should reimburse them for the cost. (((Who us? Pay damages? We never?)))