Nationwide - stolen laptop

Ivrytwr3

Today my 8 month old daughter recieved a letter from Nationwde regarding her trust fund telling her to read the letter and once done to pass it on to her mum or dad. The letter states that an employee had taken a laptop home containing customer information and not to worry that it was only information used for marketing purposes (!) My queries:

1. ONLY marketing purposes? So the highest bidder has access to my 2 x children's home address, telephone number and dates of birth.

2. WHY was an employee taking such an item with sensitive information back to his home anyway?

Would anybody push this matter further, or do you believe this was out of their control and should accept the letter of apology?

Ta for looking

Rex_Mundi

This laptop was stolen last August. The police, and the FSA are already holding investigations into it. The Information Commissioner is already aware of the situation.

What else could you expect to do?

We bank with Nationwide, and I haven't noticed any additional spam/junk mail/marketing calls. Chances are that this was an opportunist theft, and the thief didn't/doesn't realise what was on the laptop. It was most likely wiped, and sold on.

Ivrytwr3

It was most likely wiped, and sold on

That's your assumption and in cases like this i would be preparing for the worst case scenario, not looking at the best.

A recent theft of a laptop, again believed to be opportunist, revealed a laptop being stolen containing 15,000 police officers bank details and home adresses; there is a BIG enquiry going on into that. Officer's have been offered counselling and some are pushing for compensation etc.

What else could you expect to do?

I don't expect anything, i'm asking people's opinions on is this acceptable and is an employee allowd to take such sensitive information home?

lemontart

I got this letter too........took their time writing to us didnt they.......

Beth
xx

Heinz

Al_Mac wrote:

Who would you expect to buy the Nationwide laptop and to use the information on it? It would be illegal in this country.

Er........ just like burglary then (the laptop was stolen during a burglary).

I have asked Nationwide 3 times now to provide me with details of the information regarding me that were contained on the laptop so I can assess the risk for myself.

I get nonsense responses like, "There really is no need for you to worry" and, even more ridiculously, "We are following the advice of the police and our security experts, which is not to release further detail." I'd have thought their security experts would've advised not taking the laptop home in the first place or at least taking precautions to prevent it being stolen in a burglary!

They appear not to comprehend that they have already 'released' information about ME. That's MY information, not THEIRS - but they still avoid the simple question, "Please advise by return EXACTLY what information about my wife and I was on the stolen laptop and is now in the public domain."

Ivrytwr3

Mac, you seem to be assuming an awful lot. My details MAY not be on there, the burglar MAY not know what's on it, the burglar MAY not have any contacts to sell it on, laptop MAY have been smashed/dumped etc etc etc etc.

Like i said best practise is to assume the worst, not the best.

olly300

Heinz wrote:

Er........ just like burglary then (the laptop was stolen during a burglary).

I have asked Nationwide 3 times now to provide me with details of the information regarding me that were contained on the laptop so I can assess the risk for myself.

I get nonsense responses like, "There really is no need for you to worry" and, even more ridiculously, "We are following the advice of the police and our security experts, which is not to release further detail." I'd have thought their security experts would've advised not taking the laptop home in the first place or at least taking precautions to prevent it being stolen in a burglary!

They appear not to comprehend that they have already 'released' information about ME. That's MY information, not THEIRS - but they still avoid the simple question, "Please advise by return EXACTLY what information about my wife and I was on the stolen laptop and is now in the public domain."

The only way to get information from Nationwide is to use a data subject access request under the Data Protection Act 1998 and even then you are unlikely to get information about what was on the laptop.

The reason for this is that it is virtually impossible for an employer to police exactly what an employee has on a laptop so Nationwide is not likely to know what precise data was on the laptop.

Employers generally only give laptops out to people who are in a position of trust. This means this person is trusted not to abuse the equipment which includes keeping data secure on it. However having a laptop stolen is not seen as an abuse of this trust as it is beyond the employees control unless they did something stupid like leaving it on display in a parked car.

Also you need to remember that lots of people walk around with laptops nowadays i.e. civil servants, lawyers, accountants and some of these laptops may have your data on them but you will be unaware of it. As laptops get lost and stolen all the time you never know exactly when your personal data is being exposed. Nationwide by actually admitting to this have probably done more than other organisations who lose laptops with people's details on them.

Finally it's extremely hard to physically secure a laptop if you are using it as a mobile device which is what there purpose is. The only thing that you can hope for is that data is encrypted so if it is stolen the thief will find it very hard (nothing is impossible) to get the data on it.

dragonsoup

I got the letter today as well although I had heard about it before.

What really annoyed me was how they turned it around and enclosed a lot of patronising litrature on identity theft and the importance of keeping personal data safe.

Remarkably cheeky in the circumstances.

reehsetin

my info was on the laptop, well id aswsume seeing as i got the letters
i wasnt worried UNTIL they sent me replacement cards for my two accs with a fraud warning thing on there, to say on the safe side we've brought forward the replacement date for the cards
if the info on there was for marketing purposes only then whyd my cards need changing!?!?!?!

reehsetin

dragonsoup wrote:

I got the letter today as well although I had heard about it before.

What really annoyed me was how they turned it around and enclosed a lot of patronising litrature on identity theft and the importance of keeping personal data safe.

Remarkably cheeky in the circumstances.

yeah exactly - i didnt do anything and theyve sent me a trees worth of leaflets about keeping stuff safe

RightRevBod

Al_Mac wrote:

How many people have had their cards changed? Your the first I've heard of

My wife and myself got replacements cards out of the blue a few weeks ago. Only got the letter explaining why yesterday. Until then, we thought it a bit strange as our existing cards did not expire until 2008.