Bank of Ireland Data Breach

This isn’t the first time the Bank of Ireland has been a victim of lost client data this year, but hopefully, it will be the last.

The morning of November 4th, it was discovered that a USB data storage device was missing. This USB drive contained account numbers and personal addresses of almost 900 customers of the Bank of Ireland. The Data Protection Commissioner is launching an investigation, as possession of unencrypted data on external devices is prohibited by the Bank of Ireland’s policies and procedures.

This is one of many “missing device” data breaches in Ireland within 2008. Laptops went missing from Bank of Ireland Life, leaving 31,000 accounts exposed. A laptop stolen at a bus stop contained 390,000 welfare recipients’ information, and another laptop was stolen in New York, which contained information of around 175,000 blood donors from the Irish Blood Transfusion Service. Laptops, discs and BlackBerrys have been stolen throughout the country and has left thousands of personal details out in the open, most were not encrypted.

Unfortunately, Ireland does not have