Virgin looses 3,000 customers’ bank details, highlighting need for strict control on data

Leading British designer and manufacturer of encrypted hard drives, Stonewood, is reminding organisations of the need to encrypt their sensitive data following news that Virgin has lost an unencrypted CD containing 3,000 customers’ bank details, names and home addresses.

Stonewood experts note that there has to be a high quality, easy to use security procedure, strict guidelines that instruct users how to secure their data, strong Authentication and strong Encryption – this final line of defence ensures that even if the media is lost the data is still protected.

“Companies and individuals seldom recognise the value of their date until such time as it been breeched or lost. Sensitive customer data should never be stored on non-secure, unencrypted portable devices,” said Grant Gutteridge, sales director at Stonewood. “The technology exists to securely store confidential personal details and organizations should invest in systems that make sure they do not put their customers at risk.”

Although Virgin Media is paying for credit file protection for everyone whose banking information is now out in the wild, this should serve as a reminder of the damage that is done by poor attention to IT security. Public awareness of data loss remains high in the wake of last year’s HMRC and its seems that every week there is news of a company loosing data.

“Sensitive data should always be encrypted. It is vital that policies are implemented and more importantly adhered to ensure that no kind of confidential information is made vulnerable to loss or theft,” added Grant.

About Stonewood: www.Eclypt.com

Stonewood is an innovative solutions-driven company that designs and manufactures the industry leading FlagStone range of hardware encrypted hard drives.

Trusted globally by Governments, Law enforcement agencies as well as the world’s foremost financial, banking and medical corporations, the FlagStone range is widely-recognised for its fit and forget, tamper proof and fully secure solution for data encryption.

They are Operating System independent and require no specialist IT knowledge in order to operate them; they are completely transparent to the end user and have no adverse effect on computer performance.

FlagStone has now evolved into Eclypt, with an array of new and improved features making it even more user-friendly and flexible to suit each and every individual organisation, without compromising the level of data protection.

MS Windows User Account Management software, support of up to 128 User Accounts and configurable password length and login attempts are just some of the features that Eclypt has to offer.

Zara Gibb
Management Supervisor
Peppercom Europe
The Timber Yard
107 Drysdale Street
London N1 6ND
Tel: +44 (0)20 7033 2660
Fax: +44 (0)20 7900 2928
E: zgibb {at} uk.peppercom(.)com
Mobile: 07957 129 339