Details of 31,000 customers lurk on Bank of Ireland stolen laptops

IT SEEMS it wasn't just 10,000 life insurance customer policy details that went missing when the Bank of Ireland kept getting its laptops nicked. No, it was details of 31,500 customers.

Last week, the bank admitted that missiing laptops contained the details of 10,000 customers. But now it has been forced to say that a breakdown in procedure had meant that senior management hadn't been told all the details of the stolen laptops. There were four of them. And they contained 31,500 policies, policy applications and a "small number" of mortgage customers.

But now the details were known and we're seeing the Bank of Ireland management in action in a crisis. It immediately called in consultant KPMG. So we can doubtless expect swift and decisive action will be taken just as soon as a thorough investigation of the matter has been conducted and billable hours reach an acceptable level.

The Irish Bank of Ireland said in a statement: "The technical investigation has identified that details relating to 31,500 policies, policy applications and a small number of mortgage customers were contained on the stolen laptops. The additional numbers arise from the identification of further files not identified at the time of the original statement on the incident issued on Monday 21 April."

But panic not because even while KPMG is on the case, the bank has started encrypting its laptops and expects that every one of its laptops will be encrypted by the end of May. µ