15m bank details lost!!

[Neil]

I think that HMRC is totally screwed up since the merger between Customs and Revenue. I know someone who has been in Customs since leaving school. The Revenue lot were on higher pay grades than the Customs lot. This has meant that when job opportunities come up in the Customs side there are lots of Revenue workers at a high enough grade to be considered. What is actually happening is that teams of Customs Officer's are now under the control of Tax Inspectors who know nothing about under cover Custom's operations etc. They appear to have got the jobs because of the grade they are on not their level of experience.

Now must be a good time to become a smuggler

[MargaretR]

I retired from the Civil Service in 1994, during a tory government.
At that time large sections of civil service jobs were being PRIVATISED.
My job, government building management, went 'private' the year after I left,
along with the typists, telephonists, cleaners, mail opening and other anxiliary support services.
The result of this was an influx of workers into government buildings, who are not civil servants, and whose 'security status' was not vetted.

The outsourcing of claim processing to foreign countries was also under consideration at that time - don't think that happened - thank goodness

This reduced the number of civil servants and the government payroll - for political reasons.

Both tory and labour governments have been responsible for the 'butchering' of the Civil Service

[panther]

well if they try and steal my identity, they would soon bin it!!
they will get nowt out of me....im skint!!

maybe they would feel sorry for me and give me money!

[MargaretR]

Originally Posted by panther

well if they try and steal my identity, they would soon bin it!!
they will get nowt out of me....im skint!!

maybe they would feel sorry for me and give me money!

They could give you debts

[Stanleymad]

If because of this mess you actually have your identity frauded or bank account hacked then could you sue the government????

[panther]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

They could give you debts

doubt it, my credit score is probably zero, i never get credit!

[lancsdave]

Originally Posted by Stanaccy

Is it just me or is the fact that a "junior" read casual, member of staff was allowed to download all details of all Child benefit recipients, a bit scary or am I just being paranoid (BTW I work for the DWP and there is no way in hell we would be allowed to do this).

If they are then I would call for the heads of all depts in HMRC and not just the muppet who resigned.

All the money they spend on IT 'consultancy' when designing these systems, you would think they would spot a simple security flaw.

[entwisi]

I'm more surprised that in these days of fast encrypted links they still send a physical piece of media.

The data should have at very least been encrypted. As most know I work for a Bank. I deal with Live systems and can tell you our internal processes state that data must be encrypted if it moves even if it is only internally within a server in a secure environment. e.g. if a server makes a call back to itself the request never even travels outside the physical unit yet it MUST be encrypted. These are computers that even though I am responsible for keeping them running I am not under any circumstances allowed in the same building as them.

[lancsdave]

Looks like we all lost on on buying the information

Find Two CD-R's - Have data on them - some sort of database on eBay within, Other, Everything Else (end time 21-Nov-07 12:21:09 GMT)

[flashy]

in the last two days ive been listening to this a lot on the news, and to be honest i'm not too worried about it, like someone said this morning on tv, as long as you keep an eye on your bank statements it will all be fine, AND DONT PANIC

[West Ender]

Originally Posted by Neil

I think that HMRC is totally screwed up since the merger between Customs and Revenue. I know someone who has been in Customs since leaving school. The Revenue lot were on higher pay grades than the Customs lot. This has meant that when job opportunities come up in the Customs side there are lots of Revenue workers at a high enough grade to be considered. What is actually happening is that teams of Customs Officer's are now under the control of Tax Inspectors who know nothing about under cover Custom's operations etc. They appear to have got the jobs because of the grade they are on not their level of experience.

Now must be a good time to become a smuggler

It's not really relevant to this particular issue but I will set the record straight here.

Inland Revenue used to be higher paid than other departments because of the huge, diverse amount of knowledge we were required to have. The disparity in pay disappeared 20 years ago.

When IR merged with C & E there were cross-overs both ways. There may have been more high grade people in IR but that's because it was a much bigger organisation. The director in charge of my last job in HMRC was a lady from former C & E. She knew nothing about tax when she took over.

The biggest part of what the C & E did, prior to the merger, was not Customs - it was VAT and that's what some Revenue managers began to cover.

Having said all that I agree with you that things have only got worse since the departments merged. It's all due, as I've said before and Margaret verifies, to the "culling" of staff in the name of economy.

[Mick]

Just read through this thread and you all seam worried about your bank accounts what about the other big problem?
these discs have all the details of children on the disc so what happens if a phedophille ring get hold of the discs?
these discs need finding fast

[emamum]

i was thinking about that too mick... its no good saying that the discs were lost miles away because these people tend to pass/sell information on to one another... every single child in the country is on this list!!

[Tealeaf]

The true blame for this debacle should lie with the politicians and civil servants who decided to locate the IR office in Newcastle. Every person up there is a thicko of some sort; sticking a database like this in the snail mail is exactly what would be expected of them.

[emamum]

there must have been a better, more secure way of sending them!!!!