Beast System Update 2

Bigger databases
increase risks, says watchdog (UK)

The proliferation of ever larger centralised databases is
increasing the risk of people's personal data being lost or
abused, the government's official privacy watchdog claims today.
The warning from the information commissioner, Richard Thomas,
comes as he discloses that reported data losses have soared in
the past year . . . The new figures show that the
information commissioner has recently launched investigations
into 30 of the most serious cases. The 277 breaches include 80
reported by the private sector, 75 within the [National Health
Service] and other health bodies, 28 reported by central
government, 26 by local authorities and 47 by the rest of the
public sector . . . The information commissioner says
that data losses have already led to fake credit card
transactions, witnesses at risk of physical harm or
intimidation, offenders at risk from vigilantes, falsified land
registry records and mortgage fraud: "Addresses of service
personnel, police and prison officers and battered women have
also been exposed. Sometimes lives may be at risk." 
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