Encryption & password are different things, any encrypted information can be 80% safe in some cases, but simply password protected data can be viewed. This password cracking method is brute forcing, and if 100 peoples are together to do this work, they can get cream inside disk in minutes.

But at least the man resigned...

Nirmal, Gujarat, India

Tom from London you want too get your facts right before questioning Royal Mail. Firstly and Importantly, it was courir firm TNT which lost the package through there none registrated service. Mainly due to H M R C cutbacks from using Royal Mail to TNT courier service ordered by the goverment. If Royal Mail were the internal mail system for H M R C the package would of been sent Special Delivary at a price of 4.50. But the goverment is so obbseesed with foreign companies taken over anything British that they employed TNT instead of the tried and mostly trusted Postal service of this great Nation. Namely ROYAL MAIL. So Tom try doing some research before making comments. Ok

Mark, Whitehaven,

So the clever criminal gets hold of this information. 25 million of our details and takes just one pound from each and every account. That's a lot of money that wouldn't really be noticed as going out of an individual account. £25m would support a terrorist group very nicely. That is going to be the level of criminal that will be looking very interestedly at this blunder.

But why stop there? The basic rate of payment for one child is £120 or there abouts. Mulitply that by 25 million and that is £3,000,000,000 gone missing.

That's around buying a silo full of nuclear missiles worth.

Seeing as nowhere has mentioned at all how much of an impact financially this would have. I thought it would be prudent to show what kind of monetary impact this would have on us and what kind of players would be interested in this.

The level of incompetence of this government is inconceivable.

Matthew Wagg, Sandiacre, UK

Is there a brave lawyer out there with the bottle to take out a class action against the government or the relevant department based on a contravention of their own Data Protection Act 1998

"Appropriate security measures must be taken against unlawful or unauthorised processing of personal data and against accidental loss of, or damage to, personal data. These include both technical measures, e.g. data encryption and the regular backing-up of data files and organisational measures, e.g. staff data protection training"

As these measures were clearly not taken (or staff not trained properly, there must surely be a case to answer. I'll put my name down. I'd also like the money back that I had to fork out for regular credit updates to ensure new accounts and loans aren't being taken out in my name.

J Dunn, Crewkerne, UK

Despite my believe that Alistair Darling is an incompetent MP, and doubly-incompetent as a Cabinet minister, it's a bit unfair to blame him for this particular fiasco.

This time, the blame lies squarely at Gordon Brown's door - as he created the towering monolith that is HM Revenue & Customs, a government super-department that was bound to be targetted by opportunists and thieves.

No doubt Brown will smug his way out of any blame, or even any hint of blame.

Ade, Cádiz, Spain (ex-pat)

At least someone is doing the right thing and resigning!
What about it Mr.Brown! When is your turn?

Bill, Wales,

What is the point of having the data protection laws, expensive systems and procedures, if the people in charge of it are negligent or couldn't care less.

These people who are supposed to protect the tax payers with their life should not be allowed to easily wash their hands by resigning and should be punished for their criminal negligent.

What is the point of spending in excess of £5 billion for the proposed ID card system, when you know it would be only as good as the people running the system?

Lisa, Chorley, Lancashire

This Government has gone from a period of bad to even worse. What more can i say! Come back Blair, at least the blunders he made were not so obvious! All CHANGE!

Steve, Ludlow, UK

The problem of very large releases of sensitive data is likely to grow unless organizations ensure effective security procedures, at all levels.

Modern databases are very fast, reliable and powerful data storage tools, making it easier to store on a small system the simple records of a whole country if not the entire world population. A large, centralised database is very attractive.

This data loss is reported to be two cds.
However a pocket-sized hard disk could easily be attached to a pc and a volume of over 1000 cds could be copied and carried away. Thus massive databases are now vulnerable to theft.

Access to large reports or database dumps must be tightly controlled, and any such releases contained under military grade security. Casual storage device attachment should be disabled.

Failure to implement effective measures from the design stage to full operation will mean that in the near future a great deal of our most sensitive personal data will be in the wrong hands.

Richard, Tonbridge, Kent

We hear about this happening time and time again, yet no one seems to ask why these details are put on a disk in the first place.

Tommy Magal, London,

Why did he resign?

His department wasn't responsible for shooting someone dead, was it??

MarkS, Leeds,

Better change your bank account now.

Paul Davis, York, uk

I see; and the Government should also have an ID database?

Nick Scott, Edinburgh, Lothian

At least he resigned, as being the honourable thing to do. Would that Ian Blair, Alastair Darling and the rest of the New Labour failures had resigned over their failures rather than hanging on to the bitter end.

Dave, slough,

It's not Mr Gray who should resign, its that fool Darling.

Rodney Bewes, kettering,

Googling Paul Gray on the internet makes me conclude that he hasn't put all his eggs in one basket and "resigning" won't exactly break his bank. Will he still have all benefits, pension etc?

Frieda P Douglas, Lincolnshire,

This incident highlights the fears of those who oppose ID cards, whose security is based on the identical system used by HM Revenue and Customs. We should scrap all plans for ID cards and use the money for proper inland security, not based on the unreliability of electronic data.

David Bennington, Ruislip, UK

May I commend Mr. Gray on his honourable decision to step down following this incident. I suggest that copies of his letter be sent to all government ministers, with the name, position and department left blank, to be filled in as appropriate by said ministers following similar foul ups in their own departments. Many of these letters would, of course, have to be retrospective.

Dave Alexander, Newry, Co. Down

So another of Gordon Brown's creations has fallen over.

First the tripartite agreement that went with independence of the Bank of England fell over at the first major test (Northern Rock);

Now his merger of Customs & Excise with the Inland Revenue has been found wanting (as well as the Tax Credits system generally).

MarkS, Leeds,

Can't wait for the new Identity Card to come in, stored on Government PC's etc and supossedly the answer to Fraud.

One database... one target... great

Anton, Dorchester,

What's all this information doing on a single, portable disk? A very basic security error, surely?

Frank Upton, Solihull,

Haven't they heard of encryption?

William McIlhagga, Ilkley,

So the Chairman of Revenue and Customs has acccepted responsibility and resigned - so far so good.
Experience of this government, however, leads me to assume that he was "persuaded" to carry the can to avoid this government having to accept any responsibility (for anything!).
Just what was his pay-off? Simple cash? An early -enhanced- pension? Honours are a bit unlikely as they are a bit obvious nowadays! Somehow I suspect that "privacy" and "The Data Protection Act" will be used to hide this information, just as they didn't for taxpayers!

Mike Bibby, St Albans, England -not EU

Well, just wait till ALL the details of EVERYONE in the country are held centrally and lost - as they will be - this govt couldn't organise a database of 10 items, never mind databases on the scale planned for the ID card scheme.

This will seem as nothing in a few years if this government stays in power

Jeremy Poynton, Fromeville, 51st State

Wake up Britain! As part of its ID card scheme, this government proposes to set up a national database that contains ALL of your personal information in one handy file. This scale of carelessness with our data will continue to occur and you will be LESS safe. Whatever you may have thought in the past, you DO have something to hide and that is information pertaining to the security of you and your family. This is a far bigger threat to your future than any of the hysteria about terrorism or the current levels of identity theft. Join NO2ID now...

John Levett, Eastbourne, UK

Not to mention the identity theft of employee details IN HMRC (the Tax Credits dept) last year!

Wholesale uselessness.

Jeremy Poynton, Fromeville, 51st State

What we really need is for the Government to have ALL of our personal details (including biometric data) at their fingerprints in a National ID scheme which costs several billion dollars.

After all, they are clearly more than competent at handling the information which they hold about us.

E L Kerfoot, Chester,

Just goes to show that when it comes to personal, genetic information the Govt cannot be trusted. Not because they are dishonest but because human error is always a concern.

Next they're going to tell us to trust them about ID cards.

Jite, London,

HMRC are little more than a bunch of criminals who run slip shod over the law and human rights while acting with immunity from prosecution and in complete anonymity. In a recent EU ruling they have been found to have acted illegally by enacting 'Extended Verification' which allows them to withhold VAT rebates from legitimate business claimants. So vigorously have these faceless wonders used this illegal process that they have put out of business many perfectly legitimate companies. Many of these companies have been unable to do business for over eighteen months now even though the Extended Verification process has been declared illegal.
It could only happen under this currant government which is currantly taking us headlong into a police state

D Case, Newquay,

This episode is typical of the ever diminishing standards in the Civil Service where the whole ethos of confidentiality, security and nothing relating to work leaving the building has been lost.

We shall see the demise of on-line transactions in the future as hackers and fraudsters penetrate systems and wreck them for personal gain. I no longer pay for anything on-line or use my credit card on the phone as once you have been victim of fraud (in which the police take no interest whatsoever, so it's outside the crime figures) you wonder what's next.

As for Child Benefit files going astray, I think that if there were any joined up thinking on using computers, it would be found that there are far more children in the system than at schools, just as there are millions more national insurance numbers in use than there are people of working age. The mentality exists in all walks of life, that if it's on the computer, it must be right, instead of assuming garbage in, garbage out.

Peter Hollander, Canterbury,

I know, let implement ID cards I'm sure they'll fix this issue and the data won't get into the wrong hands.

Jay Long, NEWBURY, England

This is ANOTHER example of why we should not even consider entrusting ID Card data to any government. It is a matter of time until that data is also compromised one way or another.

Ubi, Edinburgh, UK

and this is the same government that wants to capture huge amounts of our personal data, store it in a central database and allow a mutitude of 'government agencies' to have access to the data. And they expect us to trust them that the data will be secure.......hands up who trusts them to do this.....

John, Reading, uk

Here we go again. Computer discs containing vital personal information floating round the country probably by the courier company that quoted the cheapest rate for the job.

Didn't we used to have a body called the Queen's Messengers who were personally responsible for conveying sensative documents to embassies throughout the world? Why can't we have the same system here?

The old saying still applies -"If you pay peanuts you get monkeys"

Robin L. Wilkins, doncaster, sth yorks

And they wonder why we don't want ID cards in this country, with all the personal information that they will hold....just for some nincompoop to lose it.

It's MY identity - and Gordon, I intend to keep it. If you think I will hand over all my personal details to you and your lot to mishandle it......think again.

Richard, Nottingham, UK

It seems that every sensible person knows what HMRC staff obviously does not know: if there really is a need to 'transport' sensible data one encrypts these data....

However, before Darling came into position this was Brown's department and I am sorry but I am not naive enough to belive for one second that this kind of pratice just occured within the past ten days for the first time.
It is time that this government packs its bags and moves on. All of them and now.

Susanne, Edinburgh,

Hmm. Makes you wonder how safe a national ID database would be!

Or for that matter the Health Services national patient record database!

Stephen, St. Ives, England

Nice of Mr Gray to do the honourable thing, 9 days after the horse has bolted. Not really reassuring, I am sure he has done the honourable thing, but what possible safeguard can their be for the people, whose details are on those missing files. An apology is certainly the lowest form of compensation. All it takes is the details to used by the criminal world, loans, mortgages, but it doesnt stop there , what if the ciminal uses your details and is caught as a bank robber, mugger, rapist, phedophile, it really is a horrifying state of affairs.

What is the government going to do, I will tell you, run a spin on how there was no real danger, maybe mock up an arrest, to put the public at ease. Say they`ve found all the files. Political life moves on and the details are still out there.

We cannot really say what the government will do, there are so many tissue of half truths (lies basically) , that we will not be told for another 50 years on. By which time all affected have died.

Peter Hagan, Liverpool, England

How typical of this bunch of Amateurs - Ask the Illegal immigarants who are employed by these idiots where the missing files are - In Somalia perhaps - D.Smith, Cannes

David Smith, Cannes, France

Good, at least that should be the end of anybody pretending that identity card information would be safe.

AHG, FOIS, France

This kind of fiasco will be only the tip of the iceberg once ID cards, biometric passports and DNA databases are rampant in the UK. The plain fact of the the matter is that this government is highly incompetent and utterly clueless about safeguarding the personal information of its citizens. The government is about to kick off a £20bn ID card database which will basically present all the personal details of everyone in the country to any kiddie level hacker (not to mention all the easily bribed dullards that staff these departments who will sell off your personal details in a heartbeat for the price of a Big Mac). Plenty more of this to come!!

phil, london, uk

And yet this idiots expect us to believe that they can be trusted with all our information when ID cards etc are introduced? They haven't got the first clue about data security.

paul downes, Milton Keynes, Bucks

...and the Pro-ID Card lobby are still claiming 'I have nothing to hide' ? It beggars belief. This is looking like another Jacqui 'Lets not release the news until we have got the 'line' right' Smith fiasco.

davidg, carshalton, surrey,

You just couldn't make this up could you? This must surpass the wildest dreams of the identity theft crooks to get a bonanza like this. We thought the last lot of Tories were bad at having their noses in the trough but now we know that the current incumbents of No10 must be working for the Mafia. First no border controls, then recruit illegals into security, now get the entire countries bank details and give them to the crooks. Oh yes, and fleece the taxpayer £24 billion for bailing out a failing bank at the same time.
What next - flog Trident to Osama?

Bry Barnes, Somerset, Uk

What a complete disatster....Hold an election Mr Brown!

Caroline, London,

Paul Gray has demonstrated real leadership in taking responsibility for the failings of junior employees in the organisation he heads. What a contrast to Sir Ian Blair.

Steve UK Expat, Las Vegas, USA

The only safe action for people to take is to change banks accounts. Anything else is far too risky.

Paul Davis, York, UK

Now is the time for the civil sevice to show it means to improve efficiency and sack the culprits. However what is the betting that the offenders will be given sick leave due to the stress caused by having to put sensitive information in the correct envelop

Martin, Bookham, Surrey

Well, if this is an example of the way the Labour government protect the citizens of this country, we will all be having sleepless nights now. Anyone fancy entrusting Brown and the rest of his incompetents to secure our borders and introduce ID cards ??

See you tomorrow in the queue outside the bank to close our accounts; or perhaps in the lengthening queue to leave the country

Rick, London, England

Is anybody asking the Post Office (or is it Royal Mail) why they have lost this item?

Their reliability is so bad now people accept this as normal.

Tom, London,

On Nov 15th the Times ran a story "Doctors may be prosecuted if their laptops are stolen". for a "blatant breach of fundamental observation". In the context of this story, it now makes for very intersting reading.

WD, London,

Another day, another Government blunder. I Dread to think what Brown and his incompetent cronies will announce tomorrow!

Rich, Leeds,

Data is password protected. You need at least 30 characters long password to make it very secure. A Junior handled the data so the password is more likey 123456

Ash, Crawley,

These failing are systemic within this government, not merely HMRC. HMRC is only the first one to come to light. I predict similar failings to do with DWP, DEFRA and other well known departments will emerge.

If you want to see the back of this government, change your bank account and then send in a Freedom of Information request to your chosen government department and watch the whole lot fall over like a House of Cards.

Then go to the ballot box assuming Brown has the bottle to call an election. That would be one way of ensuring this doesn't happen again.

Of course, given this government's cynical track record, one always wonders whether there was worse news they were trying to hide by releasing this particular gem.

Watervole, Twickenham,

The resignation of Mr Paul Gray is regrettable as he has until now been dragging HMRC kicking and screaming into the modern world with some considerable success. However he has done the honourable thing and resigned, accepting that whilst he was not personally responsible, the integrity of his position demanded nothing less.

When will this same sense of honour and decency reach the political leadership. If ministerial resignations were offered during recent catastrophic errors, then possibly the replacement individuals would monitor more effectively their departments and duties.

Jonathan Mills, Brighton,

I'm glad to see one of many incompetent beauracrats resign and find his willingness to be accountable surprising and refreshing. However, I do not think that sackings and resignations are enough. According to the Data Protection Act of 1998, the people responsible for violations are subject to fines and victims of the breach are entitled to have their details removed from the offending organization's records. I think rigourous prosecution of those responsible is in order.

The story keeps getting worse for this sad administration.

Lee Watts, Bucks Horn Oak, Surrey / Hampshire Borders

Fantastic! What a laughing stock!
We are all safe though... we have been reassured as they will reinburse anyone who loses out becasue of this gross misconduct.
Firstly - I just wonder where all the money will be coming from to do this? Hmm let me think.... oh yes we will be paying for it as per usual.
Secondly - Must be a nice feeling to just be able to resign and bury your head in the sand when what really should be happening is that you should be dragged up in court and handed a custodial sentence.
Thirdly - Great! it actually happened 2 weeks ago!
Don't you just love this country?

Chris W, Leeds, UK

This merely serves to underline what we already know - that the government is the last place you should place your trust in for data security. My only surprise is that it has not happened before. (Or perhaps it has, and they have covered it up?) It also serves to warn us of the inherent dangers of any ID card system, and the fact that such data, in a single place, represents a huge "honeypot" to the fraudsters and thieves, and it will only be a matter of time before it is
obtained and put to fraudulent use. In which event, I fully expect the government to deny any responsibility and to fail to compensate those who have been harmed by such fraud.

Adrian Ryan, Donegal, Ireland

ID cards ? Credit crunch ? Bailing out Northern Rock ? Illegal immigrants in security jobs ?

The nation is waking up to the reality this is a plunder and blunder government !

David, Swindon, Wiltshire

Where do I sign up for the ID cards and give a sample for the DNA database ?!

Stephen, St.Ives, Cambridgeshire

This is even more damning, from experience a large number of people actually use their children's name for passwords. Someone with a racial motive could target by surname/race. They also have a list of young children to target (aka Madeleine) along with vunerable single mothers. This is an extremely serious breach. It shows that large central 'big brother' cross referencing databases are extremely dangerous in the wrong hands - let alone imcompetent ones. This is not something that should be brushed aside as harmless - these disks need to be found before they are copied. It about time there was proper debate regarding our personal data, stricter use and storage/cross referencing of 'grey' data, data which is gathered indirectly from our day to day actions, such as clubcards/credit cards and alike.

A Jone, UK, UK

Mr.Gray is "stepping down."

What does that mean exactly?Has he been fired?Does he leave the civil service or just get shunted sideways? What about his pension?Will he be in receipt of a "package"?

I think we should be told the answer to these questions.

sandy, isle of arran,

Disgraceful...

Adam, Southampton,

Why have no politicians been fired over this and the Northern Rock joke?

It seems under Gordon Brown no member of his cabinet is touchable...

Blair would fire ministers in this kind of situation, why hasn't he?

James Pratt, London,

Can't wait for identity cards.

Farrukh, Woking, UK

Well, I'm glad it's only:
1. Bank details - you would be covered to some extent by the financial institutions, or as a security measure change your bank / bank account.
2.Names - you could change your name by "Deed Poll" as a drastic measure if so required.
3. Addresses - perhaps your temporarily are living at an address? 4. Dates of birth - you share that with a number of people anyway?!
5. Employment - could get your fired for sending documents addressed to yourself perhaps?!

I wonder what would happen if the "Biometric Data" - iris, fingerprints and DNA were to be "lost" - who would get the sack? Something to think about ....

Faiz Nazerali, Harrow, Greater London, UK

I work for the Department and confirm that to send any item of post other than by second class or the internal courier service requires a business case to a senior level manager. Hence to send sensitive information by registered or recorded delivery may well have taken weeks to authorise. Here we have the results.

Gordon , Southampton,

Relax everyone. This just goes to show what a wonderful country Britain is. The economy is still doing well and the only thing that worries us is some lost discs . france would be happy to only have this problem.
Lets count our blessings.

j gallagher, london, Uk

As usual the Gordon Brown big guns willl rally behind the Chancellor and get the propagnda machine to convince us our personal details are safe!! We are to be prosecuted for failing to furnish the information. Which government minister will be sacked over this fiasco? It's time the advisors and consultants realised that computer stored data is not safe and the whole theory of one computer with everything on it should be revised. At least make it regionalised so that only a fraction of data is lost at a time!!

R.Allely, Cardiff, Wales

Muppets!

Time to sack labour!

I bet you Dip Stick Gordon and his banana munchin monkies can't even do basic math without a calculator, like 1+1 = oh, get the calculator.... 3 days later.... Sorry our billion pound computer calculator isn't working.... Scrap that project

PS sorry monkies for insulting you by calling labour people monkies.

Jamie, Preston, England

And they wonder why we don't support ID cards!

Pretty simple really, you can't trust the government to get anything right!

peter, York, uk

That's Britain for you. Thye are more than happy to take your money from you. However, they cannot even take proper steps to ensure that your confidential details are properly looked after.
excuse me while I immigrate to Canada

Jessica , Coventry, UK

There has to be something criminal going on here, there is simply no other plausible explanation.

Yes, I known the present government is 'criminal' in the widest snse of the term, but in the wrong hands this data could lead to unparalled chaos.

Hugh Bartholomew, Thornton, UK

Perce, london - For your information, no matter what your IT experts tell you, data will always be readable to some one who is willing to spend the time (however long) to crack the data.
What I mean is, a secured MS word document will be cracked by a knowledgeable hacker/cracker within the hour.
So even if the disc containing the millions of bank details have a brand new secured data system, it could take the cracker 1 year to crack or if he/she is lucky, it will take them an hour and worse of all no body can track the disc.
It is why the IT department for the government are just as bad as labours government itself, they should've setup a system that uses secured communication that won't give the cracker/hacker time to track, hack and read the data.

And how they charged over £100 million for a computer database system for the NHS that doesn't even work properly. that figure alone shows that some IT (non)-expert has conned the taxpayers.

Jamie, Preston, England

Sadly, it is the British public who are to blame for this pathetic fiasco. They voted Labour.

Sedgwick Morrison, London,

I think the question should be Why was all that data condensed into to CDs. What purpose does it serve if not a narfarious one

Terry, Plano, Texas

There are eight Data Protection Principles enshrined in the Data Protection Act.

These include:

Keeping the data secure - breached!

Compensation if the indiviuals' rights are infringed - 'losing' data surely infringes the individuals' rights.

To quote from Part II of the Act - para 13

13 Compensation for failure to comply with certain requirements
(1) An individual who suffers damage by reason of any contravention by a data controller of any of the requirements of this Act is entitled to compensation from the data controller for that damage.

The Data Protection Act has thus been breached, unless the Taxman can claim an exemption

dave, kent, UK

Complete horror story. Scariest of all the fact that the complete database can be copied to a disk by an individual in the first place.

Deighton, WORCESTER,

Several years ago my details were on a laptop which was stolen from an accounting firm. As compensation against identity fraud I was offered free credit reports for 9 months; this is how the private sector is forced to pay for errors. I suggest the government now offers the same to everyone receiving child benefit whose details have been compromised.

Peter, Bishops Stortford,

What a pathetic show of competence that H.M. Government exhibits. It is not just H.M. Revenue & Customs, which has a totally unenviable catalogue going back to 2002 - about half way through this memorable term of office for New Labour. The statement made by John Reid that the Home Office was not fit for purpose - and yet we still have Jacqui Smith apologising to the House for similar errors that John Reid found so distasteful. The Treasury also has answers to give about the handling of the Northern Rock banking collapse and the subsequent instability that other banks are now experiencing. The tax payer cannot bail every failing bank out of corporate disasters. Has this administration ‘run its course’, I feel that if we do not see Ministerial heads roll over these disasters, then we may see the government fall.

Michael Nye, Colnbrook, Slough, U.K.

The side issue concerning the increasing number of lost items ( thefts ) from the 'Royal Mail' is being ignored by the press.This time the Government has lost an item of value.I wonder if the Royal Mail will compensate for this item of value?

Brendan H, Solihull, UK

It looks like the UK needs real identity protection.
Each member of the public should be notified personally every time their credit file is accessed and every time their bank account is accessed, giving them a chance to stop their identity or money being stolen.
If the person agrees with the access then they have to authenticate to give their permission, using their mobile phone. It would be cheaper ot make everyone do it and give those who don't already have a mobile phone a free basic one.
I'd be happy to organise it and do it for a few pence per authentication.
By the way it would also stop internet and credit card fraud.
If there's one thing I'm sure of - the UK needs it.
This sort of occurrence isn't likely to be less common in the future so it's time something was done.
It would be a much better way to spend the money rather than have to reimburse a whole lot of people, time and time again.

Dean Procter, Sydney, Australia

Dean Procter, Sydney, Australia

What price I.D cards now ??
Only a complete idiot will ever trust their personal details to the goverment or anybody else ever again.

LJS, edinburgh,

LOL!!! How stupid can you Brits get? This is really unbelievable: unregistered mail, data on two CDs etc. What a bunch of bumbling fools, LOL!

Dave, Helsinki, Finland

I wonder if this will reduce the number of divert and grab ATM incidents now that criminals can go straight to source? I expect that will be another statistic this government will hide.

Martin Pilcher, Herts,

Ideally, Gordon Brown should show decisive leadership and give Darling the boot, then set about stabilising the rest of the public service. However, this will probably escape his consciousness as Labour have been too long in power and have become disdainful of Britons. Maybe it's simply that Darling is the best that Brown can find, which is also alarming. In any event, it's time for a change.

William Smith, Cape Town,

Totally devasted by this one. This type of data transfer
must be fairly commen practice within the Cival service.
clearly wrapping these huge data files in some form of
encryption or transferring to some form of Zip arrangement
is well out of the sphere of these guy's.
The strange way the files were shipped out unrecorded
with no details seems odd. Most traffic I use requires some
paper work again Electronic Data isnt used just thrown in
the post with the huge delay's in Postal system due to the
strikes. All carriers have some sought of Electronic trakking.
The who movement is visable to your door step.

Mike Jenks, Solihull, England

Frankly I don't get the real problem. Everytime I write someone a check I give them my bank account name and number.

Alaric, London,

To Stephen.

I think the Chancellor should face the Commons tomorrow to explain the significant worsening of the Government finances and the demand that Government spending is reduced or taxes raised.

Then again a quick visit to the IMF to bail us out should be the answer - it worked last time Labour was in POwer.

John Portwood, Hull, UK

For several years the government has been cutting and is continuing to cut the Civil Service, the brunt falling on administrative staff. There will come a time when as a result the Civil Service is not "fit for purpose", when very serious errors are made. Are we there? One indication could be the number of civil service staff who are off sick due to stress. Is this significantly greater than, say three years ago? These figures must be obtainable and would be a significant indicator. If this is the case, the present debacle is not simply the fault of an individual, but a policy fault at the heart of government - particularly of the Chancellor over this period.

Andrew Roland, Hackbridge, England

The real crisis here is not so much that 2 CDs have been lost in the post; it is that nobody gets caught on their first offence.

How many other CDs of data were successfully posted by these people before the combined forces of the HMRC and Royal Mail actually managed to lose 2?

It would suggest that security procedures and policies are ollowed like the Tin Man down the Yellow Brick Road.

And these guys want our iris scans and fingerprints? They MUST be joking!

Edwin Thornber, Bucharest,

Do what I did, leave the country. Standard of living is far higher elsewhere. What are you all waiting for?

D Evans, Hong Kong,

Well, at least this will have zero impact on divorced dads. Despite having my children for 49% of the time for the last six years, I've had zero financial support from this, the most sexist of government departments. Anyone seen Batman scooting down the high street with a couple of CD's?!!!!

Andrew Bennett, Portsmouth,

It goes to show that they (The Government) do not care about any of us.
They have nothing but contempt for the British people and care only for themselves.
Yet I am the one who has to pay for a needless ID card, containing all my details.
Security, they don't know the meaning.

Richard Magill, Bangor, Northern Ireland

It is absolutely ludicrous that such important data should be sent in the post when it could have been sent encrypted via the government intranet.

david elliott, brighton, uk

When my details went missing on an accounts laptop I was offered free credit reports for 9m to ensure against identity fraud. I suggest the government do the same for everyone who's identity they have compromised through negligence. Remember, this is a legal offence they have committed under EU privacy laws.

Peter, Bishops Stortford,

I`m an accountant who deals with very sensitive information, if I lost any information then I would get my P45.

I suggest the same should happen to all those involved with the loss of the CD`s.

Excuses and apologies wouldn`t wash with my boss so why should it wash with the Public Sector Muppets and politicians?

Ted, Birmingham,

Time to wave these no-hopers goodbye.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Election-year/

Rick, London, England

At least the man at the top had the decency to resign accepting responsibility, a stark contrast to the head of the Met.

Brian, wellington,

Incompetence on a massive scale. What's the point of fining government, it's all our money anyway. How about something a bit more personal - individual fines for each member of the Cabinet and the 'punishment' that they have their govt cars taken away for a month and have to travel by bus, tube and train (2nd class, of course) . Finally, even if these discs hadn't been lost, why do junior staff have access to so much sensitive data at once? I appreciate that data has to be accessed, but 25m records all at once?

Graham, Oxford, UK

If there's any fraud on someone's bank account now, how are the government going to prove it's not their fault?

Of course, you can't commit fraud with just a name, address, date of birth, bank account and sort code. You just need mother's maiden name (a matter of public record) or a copy of a signature (remember the new rules on postal ballots and all those voters signatures that were collected?).

This error has the potential to break the banking system, far more so than Northern Rock.

Time for Darling to get his coat, closely followed by the former Chancellor.

Nick, Reading,

I don't know what's worse. The scale of the error or the fact that most of my friends and I are not surprised.

The Treasury joins a long list of government IT failures. Is the Treasury yet another government department that is not fit for purpose?

The Labour governemnt should also scrap ID cards.

John Goh, Welwyn Garden City, Welwyn Garden City

Was it not the now forgotten Tony Bliar who insisted that all Britons needed identity cards to avoid 'identity theft'?. So what now the vast accumulation of DNA records, fingerprints and so forth, again at the whim of the state? The centralisation of personal data represents the death of the individual and birth of the police state. That is the real legacy of Bliar
The British people have turned off their hearing aids. They have been warned countless times that the state advances at the peril of the individual. But so long as the growth went on and the bonuses multiplied, so they partied into the real world of identity theft.

J Barter, Padova, Italia

I am in the Armed Forces, and if I had been so negligent as to "lose" information as confidential as this I would be looking at a Court Martial, with probable dismissal and loss of pension.

Does this government not realise that this is my LIFE they are screwing around with, not to mention the lives of my wife and children. What redress do I have for the biggest invasion of and disregard for my privacy I have ever experienced? I accept that my information may need to be shared with another organisation (ie the Audit Office) as part of the Child Benefit process.

As a serving officer I accept that my commission is a matter of public record. However, thanks to these incompetent buffoons not only is my name and rank in the public domain, but now my home address, bank details, NI number, and details of my entire family.

How's that for security?

Fuming, Cornwall, UK

Words fail me. This bunch of muppets couldn't run a bath.

Dave, Reading, UK

So those affected will be reimbursed from the public purse?Taking money from victims to pay them back is ridiculous.

So long as this government can buy itself out of disasters using our money, it will never get any better. Nothing would surprise me about this governement any more.

Ross Liversidge, Ripon, North Yorkshire

Come back Tony, all is forgiven.

Good to hear that the Tax Chief has resigned. However, it must not stop there. The senior Civil Servant in charge of the Treasury must resign, the bungling Alistair 'not anyone's' Darling must also resing and the Ptime Minister himself must resign.

This in incompetence that beggers belief.

Richard, Chelmsford,

nope. No encryption at all. Just a standard microsoft password standing between us and financial devastation. Nobody at hmrc willget sacked. And apparently there has been no breach of the data protection act. Funny that the nationwide got fined 1M last year for losing a lap top then. Labour are making the fairy story up as they go these days

paul, bristol, uk

Why is data of this importance being sent on disks which are not encrypted to prevent anyone reading it in transit?

Chris, Weybridge,

Currently you can purchase some credit analysis infomation, including loans against your name. I have always thought that this information should be available free of charge, so that you can easily see whether any loans have been taken against your name without your knowledge.
Such incidences as publicised today, show that my thoughts to be very relevant.

Andrew Beck, London, UK

To me the most disturbing thing was Mr Darling's response when asked if this was the end of ID Cards.

From the BBC: On ID cards he said the key thing was that information was protected by biometric information, while at the moment information was "much more vulnerable" than it should be.

The inclusion of biometric data in no way means that the data is more secure. All it means is that instead of just my bank account details, details of my appearance, fingerprints, voice or whatever else they decide, will be handled in the same naive way.

Truly everything needed to steal somebody's identity.

P Sargent, London,

Can a "junior official" really extract the entire database from HMRC's system and copy it onto a disk. I think that's as scary as losing the disk in the post.
Next thing they'll be telling us is that the "junior official" was also an illegal immigrant.

Chris Kessell, Cheltenham, UK

It said on the news tonight that it was TNT Courier that has lost this lot of data and all the previous ones as well, which makes we wonder why they di not sack/get rid of TNT and appoint a competent company to do their deliveries ?. Once maybe, four times no.

Frank Sciller, London, UK

I suppose that this is a test of the procedure that will be used to lose all of the data in the new ID card system. If they upgrade to DVDs they should be able to cram the data into a small enough package to lose in a single envelope, biometrics and all. Maybe if they write on the outside "Contains sensitive data which could be of immense value to criminals" the thief might find it easier to identify (or did they do that in this instance, I wonder)

HMRC has made "the same mistake" ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS. Are we to understand that there are numerous batches of data which have gone astray, or merely that this is the first time that the stuff did not arrive?

Charles, Charlottesville,

If there were to be effort to identify, prevent future losses from wrong payments, or reclaim past fraudulently claimed benefits, data going astray in this way might conveniently bypass DPA controls on information held, enabling swift investigation and action to proceed.

If this were to be the case, or if the opportunity arising helps to validate data held and perhaps also to reconcile immigration records, bona fide taxpayers and benefit recipients should have little worry.

The really serious risk would be if this material were to have been stolen to order for criminal purposes, in which case along with the evolving credit crisis the full stage potential for a banking panic could be set.

Although lessons are said to have been learned from this and similar fiascos, the present complexity of the tax and benefit system, including frequent far-reaching changes on little notice and less preparation may have compounded this problem.

dr venables preller, Warminster, UK

What a shambles - can we every trust this government. Maybe they conveniently lost this information to cover up just how bad things really are. Bring on an ellection and let Great Britain try and become great again.

Justin, London,

I am reminded of the joke about the gentleman whose wife had her credit card stolen.

He didn't report it for 2 months because the thief was spending less than his wife.

Jon Leigh, Southern, France

Will these innocent victims of governmental incompetence be offered the same generous assurances of financial protection as appear to have been extended to the culpable investors in Northern Rock?

At the least I would expect the government to guarantee to make good any losses resulting from the incident and realistically they should also be liable for damages.

Bob, Reading,

What an absolute shambles.

The sheer scale of this almost beggars belief - the private financial details of almost half of the population of the country 'gets lost '.

Worse still is the Chancellor's incompetence. He was informed about this 10 days ago but it took him 4 days to call in the police!! He's then delayed warning taxpayers for a further 6 days - over this period of time we could all have had money stolen.

And then the Revenue have the gall to admit that such data loss is a regular occurrence!

The Chancellor must go. He clearly has no sense of duty or of the magnitude of the failure.

Phil, London,

Few of us had any confidence in this government's abilities to bring about the revolutionary changes it dreamed of. Change ought to be evolyutionary to have a guarantee of success. god help us when they try to implement I.D. cards!

Bob Lawson, Kettering , Northamptonshire

Maybe the Murdoch press will now, finally cease supporting New Labour and start supporting the Tories. The country is in desperate need of an election, which Labour will, hopefully, lose. This government is now well past its "best before" date.

Mike Mitchell, Spalding, England

Well Paul Grey can kiss goodbye to the mandatory knighthood, I would,nt bet on though.

hytron5, bishops stortford, herts

I'm lucky that I read about this today. As a mother, whose details are in the system, I wonder what I need to do. I also wonder about others who don't read the papers. Why hasn't HMRC told me directly that my details were compromised? Am I entitled to compensation? Shocked & worried is how I feel, what should we do?

R Cogburn, Farnham, Surrey

What's the betting that the discs did arrive, but have been misfiled or thrown away. If the latter, no doubt the recipient would obviously claim that they had never been received.

Chris, Tours, France

I think I'll go out tonight on a drinking binge whilst there's still money in my account ;-)

EB, Slough,

I assume the data was encrypted very securely? If so even if it does enter criminal circulation there will be virtually no chance of extractign the data from the file, without the correct key. We should be told for peace of mind.

Perce, London,

I wonder for what disaster Alistair Darling will have to face the House of Commons tomorrow, for?

Stephen, St. Ives, England

So, if GPs are to be prosecuted for losing laptops, what other sanctions will now be applied to the relevant HMRC staff?

Bill Q, Derby,

This should in no way cause any lack of confidence in the ability of government departments to retain sensitive information securely, and could never happen in the case of the proposed ID cards. All Britons can remain confident that all personal information held by the organs of the state is secure and that this is a 1 in 10,000 year fluke, as shown by the flawless way in which all other government IT projects have been handled. Sleep safe in the knowledge that all that can be done is being done, all relevant lessons have been learned (and may, possibly, be acted upon), and that this country leads the world in data protection and the apprehension of lawbreakers who retain footballs, travel at 31 mph in 30 mph zones and, yes, steal other people's identities when resources allow.

Department of State Security, draft 1.

Peter, Cambridge,

I wonder how conveniently 'lost' these details are? Tales abound of foreigners claiming for 6 six children abroad when in fact they have none. Lose the details and start again perhaps? Such a devious scenario would be typical of a very devious Government.

Judy , Liverpool, england

How does the government expect us to believe that the ID card database is going to be any more secure than HMRCs databases? The only difference is that significantly more government staff will have access to the ID card data making it much more likely that someone will copy large chunks of it and put it in the post.

Steve L, St Albans,

Gordon Brown put in place the tripartite regulation of banks such as Northern Rock. he also devised the Merger of Customs and Inland Revenue to crate the largest government Dept which conveniently does not have a Minister in charge. Are any of his changes over the last 10 years fit for purpose?

Dave, London, England

Ho hum! Another massive example of government incompetence. I for one will be at my bank tomorrow morning to close my account and open a new one, thereby protecting myself from potential fraud at that source. Maybe everyone should do this before we start to hear of accounts being used by crooks for all sorts of fradulent purposes, including clearing them out ot getting credit cards and so on. It may swamp the bank's administrative systems, but what the heck... the goverment caused this and they should reap the consequences.

Jon van Alen, Birmingham, UK

Goodbye Darling!

Nick Tod, Farnham, Surrey

No one asked the one important question - have the guilty Revenue people been sacked.

W H Thomas, Fakenham, Norfolk

Proof that we cannot have a centralised database, whether it's id cards or anything else. Nothing is 100% safe, and even less so when you take into account our bungling government/civil service. There is always a weak link, criminals will chip away until they find it, and when they do, the repercussions will be huge thanks to the amount of info that would be held on one person in one place. Bravo to the bunglers!
Except that we pay them.
Oh, I'd be interested to know what will happen to the person who has resigned. Does he get a bonus? Severance pay? Will he get another top ranking job within 6 months?
We all know the answers already-this 'jobs for the boys' makes me sick-bring back a meritocracy, although I'm not sure it's ever existed in the civil service!

Amir S, Birmingham, UK