Money Saving Caused Data Loss

E-mails released by the National Audit Office have confirmed that officials at HM Revenue and Customs, did not want to remove sensitive information from child benefit data sent to the auditors because doing so would cost extra.

The revelation comes as the fallout from HMRC's loss of 25 million people's records continues to rock the British government.

Chancellor Alistair Darling blamed the loss -- Britain's biggest data breach ever -- on a junior official at HMRC who had sent unencrypted disks with information on child benefit claimants to the NAO.

But the e-mails, published by the NAO alongside its briefing for the chancellor, appear to bear out key accusations made by the Conservative Party that cost was an issue and that a senior official at HMRC was aware that unfiltered data was likely to be sent.

Source Computer World