Laptop with 109,000 people's pension details stolen (From This Is Local London)

Laptop with 109,000 people's pension details stolen from Marlow

6:22pm Thursday 28th May 2009 in News By James Nadal

Laptop with 109,000 people's pension details stolen

A LAPTOP containing pension details of 109,000 people has been stolen from a Marlow office.

The data, which was not encrypted came from members of six pension schemes.

It included names, addresses, dates of birth, employer, national insurance numbers, salary details and, in the case of those receiving their pensions, their bank details too.

The computer was taken on March 23 from the offices of software firm NorthgateArinso.

The company provides software to the Pensions Trust, which runs pension schemes for charities and voluntary organisations.

A statement from the Pensions Trust read: “ The view of the police and NorthgateArinso is that this was an opportunistic theft and that the laptop itself was the thief’s target.

“NorthgateArinso has assured us that the data was password protected and as such, not easily accessible.”

The trust has written to every member of the pension schemes affected. These were Social Housing ;S.S.H.A.; Independent Schools; Flexible Retirement Plan; Growth Plan (Series 1, 2 & 3); Unified Ethical Plan.

The Information Commissioner's Office said it was treating the theft “very seriously”.

It said in a statement: “Any organisation which processes personal information must ensure that adequate safeguards are in place to keep that information secure.

“This is an important principle of the Data Protection Act. We will be contacting the Pensions Trust to establish how this security breach occurred and to find out what steps it will be taking to ensure that such a breach cannot happen again.”

A police investigation is ongoing.