Are security breaches by banks getting more serious?
February 11, 2008
Over recent months there have been many different instances where banks and building societies have breached security and put customers at risk of becoming victims of identity theft. This includes instances such as leaving personal data in skips and rubbish bags outside branches, losing the data of some customers, and sending personal and sensitive details to wrong addresses.
However, one bank has surpassed itself in terms of potential security breaches after leaving the bank doors open even thought the branch was closed. The doors to the HSBC in North Yorkshire were found to be open by a five year old boy, who rushing into the branch to play with some toys. The little boy, Oliver Pettigrew, rushed into the branch without any problem, despite the fact that the bank was closed.
His father, Daniel, called the police immediately. His mother said that it could have been so much worse if the discovery had been made by someone with dishonourable intentions. She stated: “We couldn’t quite believe it when Oliver ran into the bank. It’s our local bank so we’re in there all the time and he ran in to play with the toys. But it might not have been a little five-year-old who was looking for toys.”
The boy has now been rewarded with a £10 deposit into his bank, and the security lapse has been blamed on an electrical fault with the door. An official from the bank said: “In most of our branches we have electronic doors so they don’t have a key lock and there had been a malfunction in one of the devices that actually puts the bolt across.”
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