Customer data breach at UK loans website

Loans.co.uk has warned customers they could be at the risk of identity theft after personal data was leaked in a data security breach.

The loans website will not reveal how many customers have been affected or how the breach happened but admitted the names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, loan applications and mortgage details of people applying for loans were passed to other external loan companies without authorisation.

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silicon.com wants the government to review its data protection legislation and improve the reporting of information security breaches in the public and private sectors.

We are calling for greater public debate and for the government to consider legislation that would require organisations that suffer information security breaches to alert their customers if there is a chance the breach has put individuals' sensitive personal data at risk.

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The company said there is no evidence the customer information has been used for any purpose other than marketing activity but is offering worried customers a free one-year subscription to credit monitoring service CreditExpert to check if their details have been used fraudulently.

All customers who may have been affected by the data breach have been notified by the company.

A statement from Loans.co.uk said: "One of our key priorities is to our customers and applicants and the security of their financial information. We sincerely apologise to those people who have been affected."

Loans.co.uk, which is based in Watford, reported the incident to Hertfordshire police which said it is a matter for the data protection watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office.

silicon.com's Full Disclosure campaign is aiming to make businesses and government take data security more seriously by making it mandatory for companies to inform customers of any security breach.