[Dataloss] Lost British laptop had data on millions

[Dissent]

Chris Walsh wrote:

> I need somebody to translate this British into American for me, but
> it looks like a laptop with millions of account numbers and names
> just got stolen in the UK.

<snip>

I share your confusion as to what was compromised. We had posted this
story to PogoWasRight.org on Saturday, but I didn't post it here
precisely because it wasn't clear what, if any, PII was involved other
than names.

There was a follow-up story today that we also posted to PogoWasRight,
and again, I didn't post it here because it really isn't clear to me
that this is PII data loss:

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39284689,00.htm

Both Nationwide and FSA have refused to say exactly what data was
stolen. According to Alan Oliver, Nationwide's head of external
affairs, the laptop contained "limited customer information for market
research purposes".

The building society is willing to say what had not been stolen. No
PINs, passwords or information about financial transactions were
contained on the computer, and no account details such as customer
names, account numbers or sort codes were compromised, Oliver told
ZDNet UK on Monday.

However, there is a chance that the limited customer data stolen could
be linked to other information about individuals and used for identity
fraud.

[...]


This might be a good time to point out that although we do send a lot
of items on to this list, PogoWasRight.org has a broader scope on
privacy issues and we do include a number of news stories that may be
of interest to people here but that are not appropriate for this mail
list. In addition to the items that you see me or Ziplock post here,
we also cover news stories on medical identity theft, identity theft
that does not necessarily involve large breaches, dumpster stories
reported by the public, and other stories that may not be within the
scope of this mail list.

Cheers,

Dissent
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