'Alarming' public sector data breaches revealed

Government departments and private companies have reported an "alarming" number of new data breaches in the wake of the recent HM Revenue and Customs fiasco.

Details of nearly 100 cases of data breaches, two thirds committed by government departments or other public sector bodies, have been passed to the authorities, the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, said.

He warned organisations to step up security as he released details of the wave of new breaches, including unencrypted information lost on laptops, computer discs, paper records and memory sticks lost, stolen or missing in the post.

Missing material includes personal data such as health and financial records. Data was recovered in just three cases.

Breaches include one at the Ministry of Defence, where an unencrypted laptop containing personal information on 600,000 potential recruits was stolen. HSBC lost a disc containing the personal details of 370,000 customers, and the Driving Standards Agency lost records of 3 million people who sat their theory driving test.

The information commissioner's office said that many breaches had been reported in confidence since it emerged in November that HMRC had lost discs containing personal details of 25 million child benefit claimants.

Mr Thomas condemned the breaches as "unacceptable". In all, he said he was notified of 94 breaches; 62 from the public sector; 28 from private organisations and four from charities.