Did anyone else get letter from the social about the stolen laptop?

galwaybabe · 21-08-2008 7:50pm #1

Did anyone else get letter from the social about the stolen laptop?
I got a letter yesterday telling me that I was one of the people affected by the laptop theft from the comptroller general's office. On this laptop were my name, address, claim details, pps no, bank account details and who knows what else!

I have to change my bank account and all associated direct debits, standing orders etc. That is easy according to the bank, who were very helpful. Having said that, they had no idea about the theft despite the Dept of SW saying in letter that all banks had been informed.

I rang the helpline number given in letter and asked a few questions. Answers in bold

Q. Was the information on the laptop encrypted?
Ans : It had a PIN and that's all

Q. Where was the laptop stolen from?
Ans : From an office at the Comptroller General's

Q. Can I have a new PPS no.?
Ans : No. That is imposssible.

But there could be someone in Tasmania or anywhere using my identity. I could be married and not even know about it for example. I want a new number
Ans : No

The conversation went on for a while by which time the woman on the other end got as outraged as me about the situation and totally understood where I was coming from with my arguement about stolen identity. This was good and bad. Good because it was nice to have some empathy and bad because I couldn't shout at her any longer.

I have already visited a solicitor about this. I'm furious. I think the very least the Dept of SW can do it offer a new PPS no. to those affected and I intend to take this as far as I can.

Anyone with me?
:mad::mad::mad:

Karoma · 21-08-2008 7:53pm

It's yore own fault for having a PPS number! Rabble!

Defenestrate · 21-08-2008 7:53pm

How do I know this is the REAL Galwaybabe??! :mad:

Kipperhell · 21-08-2008 7:59pm

I worked there for a while and the security of information is very lax. They don't really need the laptop stolen for the information to get out.

In fairness the PPS number is really not much use to anybody and really not much different from somebody knowing your birthday. It is really only important to you.

phasers · 21-08-2008 8:02pm

there's some evil genius somewhere using thousands of PPS numbers to perform voodoo on you all...

*hides*

connundrum · 21-08-2008 8:02pm

Whats the story with every major institution carrying all this info on laptops?

Is there a need to carry around all that info?

I don't like it tbh. Paper filing systems ftw!

ejmaztec · 21-08-2008 8:06pm

Bearing in mind that the vat number for self-employed people or employer PAYE number is the same as the proprietor's PPS number, it doesn't make an awful lot of difference anyone knowing your PPSN.

Turd Ferguson · 21-08-2008 8:12pm

I bet there is just one guy with all of those bank and social laptops with everyones information on them sitting at home somewhere editing everyones files by putting poop and bum on them...

I'm sure he'll give them back when he's done

Creature · 21-08-2008 8:16pm

Lol hold on a sec, there really is such a thing as a comptroller? Maybe the comptroller in this case was an Otto type character in disguise also and thats how the laptop was stolen?

Dyr · 21-08-2008 8:28pm

i presume when they say PIN, that they mean username and password rather than PIN, They might have stuck a PIN on the BIOS though. I have some sympathy for the social welfare in this case, they had handed the laptop over to a third party when it was stolen. Even if they did encrypt it theres way around it. Most security features nowadays are in place just to show that due dilligence was shown in handling data.

I was doing an encryption rollout on laptops recently and there was users who had their login details on pieces of paper inside the laptop bags! You can have all the encryption you like but its useless if people dont abide by protection guidelines.

galwaybabe · 21-08-2008 8:51pm

Bambi wrote: »

i presume when they say PIN, that they mean username and password rather than PIN, They might have stuck a PIN on the BIOS though. I have some sympathy for the social welfare in this case, they had handed the laptop over to a third party when it was stolen. Even if they did encrypt it theres way around it. Most security features nowadays are in place just to show that due dilligence was shown in handling data.

I was doing an encryption rollout on laptops recently and there was users who had their login details on pieces of paper inside the laptop bags! You can have all the encryption you like but its useless if people dont abide by protection guidelines.

Here is what the Social have to say about it. Q&A

d0gb0y · 21-08-2008 9:50pm

I haven't recieved a letter yet, thank feck but i'm still uneasy about the whole situation. The government needs to get proper procedures set up & in place as soon as possible as this can cause a serious headache for the victims & the banks(the ones they really care about). At least they haven't been as crap as UK gov
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/20/uk_gov_lost_records/

Thats half the population of the UK & feck knows how many Irish people are in that. Now they want to introduce(probably already workin on it) this so to be disaster/waste of money just so they save the general population from those pesky terrorists.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/19/ukgov_uber_database/

Thats why i'm against the national I.D system that the Irish goverment is tryin to slip through as you know that its going to be cracked/hacked/lost soon enough & having all your information in one place is just retarded. The RFID chips get hacked/cloned nearly as quick as they come up with new ones, the UK's biometric passports have been hacked & 3000 blank ones went missing already. This is just a waste of money since nothing is 100% safe they all just take a certain amount of time to crack/hack/exploit. Like real life safe's none are inpenetreble they grade them on the amount of time it takes to crack them. Technology should be treated the same as it has even more vunerabilities.

Aodan83 · 21-08-2008 11:13pm

I just dont get why these people thought it would make sense to have that much info on laptops. Surely the gov. woulda been a bit more careful and thought about ..... never mind