Tuesday 8th April 2008
Following a series of high-profile data losses recently, HSBC has become the latest organisation to admit it has misplaced a disc of customer details.
News organisation Reuters reports that the financial services provider has lost a disc containing nearly 400,000 customers information.
Moreover, there remains some confusion regarding at which stage of the journey the loss occurred.
"It has got lost between A and B," spokesperson James Thorpe tells Reuters on behalf of the high street bank.
But he adds: "There is no reason to suppose that the disc has fallen into the wrong hands."
The details held on the disc relate to about 370,000 life assurance policies held with HSBC.
However, the institution stresses that no bank account details or addresses are attached to individuals entries in the files.
As a result, were it to fall into the hands of identity fraudsters or other criminals, it is unlikely that it would be of any great use.
Meanwhile, the news service also reports that water supplier Severn Trent has confessed to lying in its performance updates.
Statistics relating to the amount of water leaked from pipes in its care was falsified, it is believed.
Further information supplied to regulatory body Ofwat was also incorrect, resulting in Severn Trent being allowed to charge its customers more than would otherwise have been the case.
As a result, a fine of £36 million is likely to be levied against the firm for lying about its customer service.
Subsequent charges may also be brought relating to the water leakage data, according to Reuters.
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