Nationwide security lapse no worries

News that the Nationwide have had a laptop containing details of their 11 million customers stolen is quite disturbing. One of the reasons I Bank with Nationwide, is the fact that they still use call-centres in Britain to handle their customer services unlike my previous Bank HSBC who seem to rely heavily on overseas calls centres. Till now I have felt that call centres based in the UK are more secure and obliged to comply with data protection laws unlike overseas call centres who are used in the main because they are cheap and the staff are desperate to earn good money.



It certainly seems on the face of it, to be one hell of a lapse in security to allow an employee to take home details of 11 million customers on their laptop. Just what the employee of Nationwide intended to do with information on 11 million account-holders is beyond comprehension, surely they weren't going to send them Christmas cards.



According to Nationwide's own website the information did not give account numbers or security details, but it is still disturbing, I will continue to use them because they give good service and employ people in the UK.



Click here for Nationwide's alert



PS one of the biggest scams on the Internet is Phishing (where crooks set-up a fake bank website and try to get your details) if you update your browser to Internet Explorer 7, this now comes with a Phishing filter which alerts you to many bogus sites.