The equipment has been recovered but its loss caused the
Government to temporarily shut down the main site through which
people access Government services, the Mail on Sunday reported. The
Government has since confirmed the story.
The Government Gateway site is used by people for their tax,
benefits and other Government services. It is managed by Atos
Origin. An Atos Origin staff member lost a USB memory stick
containing user names and passwords for the Gateway site.
The stick was eventually found in the car park of a pub near
Atos Origin's offices, but ministers ordered the Gateway site to be
taken offline when the loss was reported.
"The company takes the loss of this device very seriously and we
are currently carrying out a full investigation of both the
circumstances surrounding its loss and the data content of the
stick," a statement by Atos Origin said.
The company said that the individual employee's removal of the
memory stick was in "direct breach" of its rules.
The memory stick contained the passwords of a small number of
Gateway users as well as users' personal data, which was
encrypted.
Before the memory stick was recovered and the fact that data on
it was encrypted was discovered, access to the Gateway site was
halted.
Atos Origin is not the only firm to lose citizens' data while
working on a Government contract. In August PA Consulting lost a
memory stick containing personal data on every one of the 84,000
prisoners in England and Wales. The company's £1.5 million contract
was terminated by the Government.
Privacy watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
said that the Commissioner was waiting to see what action the
Government proposed taking over the loss.
"The Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, was notified of
this incident on Saturday by the Government," said an ICO
statement. "He is now awaiting the results of ongoing
investigations to establish the facts and the nature and extent of
any risk to individuals. The Information Commissioner expects the
Government to take appropriate damage limitation steps as its first
priority."
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