Websites Sell Secret UK Bank Data and PINs

Via TimesOnline UK -

Security breaches that are allowing the financial details of tens of thousands of Britons to be sold on the internet are to be investigated by the country’s information watchdog.

Without paying a single penny, The Times downloaded banking information belonging to 32 people, including a High Court deputy judge and a managing director. The private account numbers, PINs and security codes were offered as tasters by illegal hacking sites in the hope that purchases would follow.

Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, will begin an investigation into the security breach today and Scotland Yard is also investigating. Experts said that the findings suggested that more personal data than ever before was going astray. The Times found: More than 100 websites trafficking British bank details A fraudster offering to sell 30,000 British credit card numbers for less than £1 each A British “e-passport” for sale, although the Government insists that they are unhackable.

The discovery comes as public alarm is growing about the dangers of identity theft. HM Revenue & Customs has yet to retrieve two lost CDs containing the banking details of 25 million Britons, which ministers admitted had vanished in the post a fortnight ago. At current underworld prices, these could fetch more than £100 million if they fell into the hands of hackers.

The News of the World disclosed yesterday that it had been handed two discs mislaid by the Department for Work and Pensions containing the national insurance numbers of 18,000 claimants.

Last year The Times discovered internet chatrooms where the hacked credit card details of 400 British people were being sold every day.

A spokesman for Mr Thomas said: “We will be looking at the evidence you have provided and investigating the circumstances. This looks serious and is a matter of genuine concern.

“We can take action against UK-based organisations that flout the Data Protection Act. If some of these websites are not UK-based we will work with our counterparts in the relevant country.”