Steve Freeman

There are some upsides to the recent massive data loss from the UK’s tax authority.

First, even though there was a delay, they did admit the loss and someone senior took the rap. There are too many organisations where this kind of news would never be allowed out.

Second, this breach has been large enough to make the headlines raising, I hope, public awareness of the issues. Of course, the real scandals are systemic rather than this one incident, as Ross Anderson pointed out this was “an accident waiting to happen”. Centralising all the data while casualising the workforce is not safe. If one junior clerk can copy all this data, then we must assume that others already have, but secretly. At the same time, one reason this data is so important is because too many retail institutions have weak procedures when handing out money and the credit agencies are not answerable to the people they rate.

A final benefit is the excellent opportunity for satire. This eBay auction (now withdrawn) has been preserved on The Register.

Update Police have concluded that only one person in the world would want to know the names and addresses of all the boys and girls at around the end of the year. They are now widening their search to the North Pole.