Secure USB Drive

What will it cost your business if you lose customer confidential data?  The UK’s biggest bank, HSBC, found out yesterday when it was fined £3.2 million ($5.2 million) by the UK Financial Services Authority for repeated failures to protect customers’ confidential details. 

On two separate occasions in 2007 and 2008, divisions of HSBC sent unencrypted customer data in the post on disks.  The disks never reached their intended destination, meaning nearly 200,000 customer details were lost. 

 Although no breaches have been reported following the losses, the Financial Services Authority found that HSBC had “weak controls” over data handling. 

 It seems that international regulators are getting tougher on consumer data losses from businesses, so it’s a timely reminder for any company to check its data security policies and practices.  A breach may cost a lot more than you imagined.