U.K. Government Loses Personal Data of 4 Million in One Year

While most of my identity theft "news" posts tend to be geared toward U.S. readers, the general information and advice can be used or adapted by anyone in the world concerned about identity theft. However, that doesn't mean that I think only we here in the U.S. are dropping the ball and everyone else is safe, so I'll try to incorporate more international posts to try to give an accurate picture. This particular post is for our friends in the U.K.

This Computerworld article discusses several incidents where the U.K. government "lost" the personal information of millions of citizens. This involved everything from medical insurance claims to personal ID information. Now, not all of these incidents included data being compromised (in some cases it was just carelessly handled), and not all of these breaches will result in identity theft. But the numbers are still disturbing. The frequency and overwhelming numbers involved make it clear that perhaps we (globally) need to start looking into better efforts to securing data. This will involve cooperation from both governments and private citizens.

Now, before we criticize the U.K. government, keep in mind that the U.S. government is just as guilty of exposing citizens to potential identity theft.