Front Lines
legal news
PROTECTING
than ever to hack computer • Many of the recent data
systems or go bin-diving for losses to hit the news have
information relating to been the result of insecure
CUSTOMER’S
their victims it is data sharing or transfer.
increasingly important for Retaillers should act now
businesses to take proper to ensure that all
DATA
care of the financial electronic information
information and other stored by them is
personal data belonging to protected, for example by
their customers. encrypting portable
Retaillers generally hold a storage devices and
lot of information about laptops which are used to
their customers, ranging access in-store systems.
from credit and debit card Any internet links with
details through to names, third party providers
addresses, dates of birth should be made secure.
and transaction records • Think carefully about who
collected in conjunction might be able to access
with loyalty card schemes or your customer’s data once
sensitive personal data used you have disposed of it.
in the application for store Ensure that any paper
credit. If not handled records you no longer
carefully, this data can be need are shredded and
targetted by opportunist or disposed of securely. And
highly organised theives remember that tills, store
who sell the data on servers, PCs, laptops and
through criminal networks printers can all retain
to specialist identity sensitive information as
fraudsters. This sort of data well. Retailers should
is sufficient to allow a ensure that they have safe
fraudster to steal your hardware disposal
customer’s identity, make procedures in place, using
fraudulent applications for a secure delete programme
credit, fraudulent insurance to overwrite memory
claims or fraudulent contents before equipment
transactions on your is disposed of, or returned
customer’s accounts. to leasing companies;
The implications of • Remember that protecting
identity theft are very your customer’s data does
serious for the victim, who not stop at the data held
can suffer considerable by your company.
Hannah Goldberg
inconvenience and financial Consider how you can
detriment as a result of offer customers greater
THE security breach which financial services firms are damage to their credit protection at the point of
led to retail giant TK Maxx not doing enough to records. For the institutions sale. Small measures such
losing 45.7 million credit protect customer data. This responsible for the data as providing a finger
and debit card records may comes in the wake of loss, reputational damage guard on your chip and
seem like old news but statistics published by UK can be difficult to repair. pin machine, obscuring
following recent data losses fraud prevention service Failure to safeguard credit or debit card details
at HSBC, Skipton Building CIFAS, which showed that personal data which is on receipts, and providing
Society and a number of the credit crunch has covered by the Data electronic verification
governmental departments further fuelled incidences of Protection Act 1998 can also systems (such as Verified
such as HMRC and DWP it is identity fraud. Cases of be penalised by the by Visa or Mastercard
clear that data loss “account takeover”, where Information Commissioner, Secure) for all internet
continues to be an ongoing a fraudster impersonates a which has powers to based sales can all help to
problem, which retaillers victim in order to control publically reprimand firms significantly reduce
need to take seriously. their bank details have for breaches as well as issue identity fraud and make
Hightening the cause for more than doubled from potentially unlimited fines. your customers data safer.
concern is the Financial 1,331 in the first quarter of So what can retaillers to RF
Services Authority’s report, 2007 to 3,276 in the first do protect their customers’
published in April 2008, quarter of 2008. With data, and their own Hannah Goldberg
which concludes that fraudsters now more likely reputation? Eversheds LLP
ISSUE 3 DECEMBER 2008 • 11
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