Yesterday Alistair Darling announced that two CD’s containing the details of 25m people on the child benefit database had gone missing in October 2007.

The reason this is headline news is that based on the basic information contained on the CD’s:-

Name, Address, Date of Birth, National Insurance Number, Children’s names, their Date of Birth, Bank details like sort code and account number etc.

A semi-skilled social engineer could probably work out about 25% of the passwords used for things like banking.

Currently no one knows the location of the missing CD’s

So what should you do

1) Review any “passwords” you use based on your child’s name or date of birth.

2) Check your bank account statements regularly.

3) Beware of any communication asking for additional information about any “accounts” you may have.

Tip: There will be a wave of email and web scams on the back of this, example: “After the recent data loss we now need you to confirm x and y with us.

DO NOT GIVE OUT ANY INFORMATION TO ANYONE, PARTICULARLY ONLINE or BY EMAIL.

4) Watch your junk mail for signs on new activity like a flood of offers etc.

Here is a better fleshed out Q and A on this topic.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7103828.stm

Here are some links about this story:-

http://news.google.co.uk/nwshp?oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wn&ncl=1123877007

If you are confused about what identity theft is go here:-

http://www.identitytheft.org.uk/protect-yourself.htm

Stay Safe.