UK Tax Return Website Shut After Another Security Blunder

The UK government has suffered another embarrassing data-loss episode after it emerged last week that a memory stick containing access information for several dozen government websites, including the tax department, had turned up in a pub car park.

The discovery of the memory stick, which was found outside a pub in Staffordshire two weeks ago, forced the government to shut down its Government Gateway network over the weekend while the incident was investigated.

The Government Gateway is an online portal which allows users to sign up to use online government services across all departments, including the self assessment tax return system, pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) internet services for employers and electronic VAT returns. Data security experts have warned that the information contained on the memory stick could, in the wrong hands, be used to view the personal details of the 12 million people who have signed up to use the Government Gateway services.

The incident is the latest in a long line of personal data leaks which have embarrassed the UK government since it was reported in 2007 that two CDs with 25 million sets of child benefit records were put into the general mail and disappeared. They contained names, addresses, dates of birth, child benefit numbers, National Insurance numbers and bank or building society account details.

In a bid to avert another national outcry over the government's apparently casual handling of the population's private records, the Department for Work and Pensions has attempted to assure the public that there was no compromise of security as a result of the incident.

Atos Origin, the IT company which runs the Government Gateway system, has confirmed that one of its employees removed the memory stick from company premises in breach of its own procedures, and that it was conducting a full investigation into the matter.

Tax-News.com, London

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