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HMRC apologies add millions extra to data breach cost
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A decision by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs to send out personal apologies to those affected by the data breach at the tax office has led to criticism for wasting public funds. Since some 25 million people had their personal data put at risk by the loss of two unencrypted CDs containing the full database of UK child benefit recipients, the cost of apologising to them all by letter ran up a £2.25 million bill. Spending so much public money on apologies was said to be "impossible to make up" by the Taxpayers' Alliance campaign group. "The incompetence displayed by HMRC and the government is staggering," said the group's chief executive Matthew Elliott. "Not only have the security and savings of millions been put at risk, but the taxpayer has been left to foot a massive bill for botched attempts to limit the damage." Alan Beith, the Liberal Democrat MP for Berwick, agreed while also noting that the apologies had "simply compounded the problem because the letters sent also contained sensitive information". However, a spokesman for HMRC defended the decision to send out letters to each of the people affected by the failure of its data security procedures. "It was an unprecedented loss of data, which we take extremely seriously and it was clearly the right thing to do to communicate individually with those on the discs," he said. Azzurri's managed services bring you dramatic savings and total control of your voice, data and mobile infrastructures.  |
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