The head of HM Revenue and Customs has resigned after two CDs containing the details - National Insurance numbers, names, addresses, bank account details, dates of birth - of every child in the UK have been lost in the post.
The story itself lays out the political ramifications, but we're just sitting around here open-mouthed.
You have 1.2GB of sensitive data - the most valuable data that any ID thief could imagine. You want to transfer it safely to another government location.
Do you:
- set up a VPN and transfer it, ideally encrypted, or
- burn it off to CDs, password-protected, and bung it in the post?
If you answered (1), sorry, you'll have to continue working somewhere outside HMRC. If you answered (2), there seems to be a job opening that's just come up.
What's slightly worrying is that this portends lots more revelations about unsafe practices in data transfer between government departments. Tell us your dodgy tales of unsafe transfers (of data, please). Make us feel better while we decide whether we need to change our (a) name (b) bank (c) date of birth. I've always thought it would be fun to be a Sagittarius in the year of the Monkey...
