Barclays in £250 offer to customers affected by data breach
BARCLAYS is paying around half a million pounds in compensation to 2,000 customers, including many in Scotland, after their personal data was found on a USB stick at a flat on the south coast of England.
The electronic device was found by police with a copy of information originally lost last year in the latest problem to hit the banking industry.
The bank has written to the customers offering them £250 compensation each.
In the letter, Barclays said a copy of “historic information” they had provided to Barclays Financial Planning has been recovered by the police during a criminal investigation unrelated to the bank.
A source said the information on the USB stick would have been encrypted and almost impossible for it to be read without specialist technology.
The letter stated: “The data taken included information you provided in meetings with a Barclays Financial Planning adviser prior to 2009.
“It includes details taken during the meeting... and the subsequent letter Barclays sent you containing our investment recommendations.” It added that it may “take some time” to establish how the theft happened.
Customers affected are to be offered the chance to have their details put on a credit checking scheme, in case their rating has been damaged by criminals using their information.
One customer who has been contacted by the bank after he gave information to a financial adviser at a branch of Barclays-owned Woolwich, in Glasgow, in 2007, said: “It’s shocking that information given in confidence to a financial adviser in Glasgow can end up on a USB stick at a flat in England.”
In February last year it was revealed that thousands of files containing financial and personal data had been stolen from Barclay’s internal databases.
Police discovered the data during a recent raid concerning an unconnected matter.
The files run to 20 pages per person and contain information on customers’ investment plans and capabilities and personal information such as health
issues and passport numbers. Barclays has said there is no evidence that it had been opened.
The information taken was provided by customers to Barclay’s now closed Financial Planning service prior to 2009.
Since 2014, the company has drastically increased its cyber security capabilities.
Stewart Hosie, SNP deputy leader and economy spokesman, said: “All businesses which hold personal and financial data on individuals have exactly the same responsibility to protect data as any governmental body and keep that information safe.”
A Barclays spokesman said: “This is not a new theft of data from Barclays.
“Every indication is that the data here was part of the same theft of data that was reported last year, relating to data stolen in 2008.
“The details on the recently discovered USB data stick belong to a group of customers linked to the Barclays Financial Planning business, which ceased operating in 2011. The data concerned was from 2008 or earlier.”