VeCommerce Discusses HMRC Breach

MAIDENHEAD, U.K. -- VeCommerce, an expert in designing and implementing voice self-service and speaker verification solutions believes that the loss of two disks containing the personal details of 25 million UK citizens by HMRC (Her Majestys Revenue and Customers) office, would have been less cause for alarm, if it was possible to reduce the reliance on sensitive data to enable fraud.

General Manager for EMEA at VeCommerce, Brett Feldon comments, “The HMRC incident is just the ‘tip of an iceberg’, and is only a manifestation of what is happening regularly on a smaller scale, every single day. Unfortunately it has taken a larger breach such as this, to bring the issue to a wider audience. Yes, there were certainly shortfalls in HMRC’s security procedures, but the risks come from the fact that individuals have access to sensitive information. These can include a large range of groups including professional hackers organised crime or even a call centre operative. The question is less about ‘how secure is our data’ but why are we relying so heavily on this data for verification purposes. If we didn’t this whole incident would have been a non issue”.

“What should be more closely scrutinised is how it might be possible to nullify the effects of personal data falling into the wrong hands. At present, this type of information, that it is assumed only the legitimate individual has access to, is used to verify someone’s identity and subsequently gives them the power to open bank accounts, make purchases, transfer funds or even apply for a passport under someone else’s name.”

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