A fine of $ 2 million for the loss of a computer

The financial group Nationwide Building Society was fined £ 980,000 (equivalent to $ 2 million) by the British banking watchdog for a security error.

The verdict comes after the bank's employees lost their laptops at home, which contained confidential information about customers. FSA (Financial Services Authority) said that the company did not fully comply with the security principles because it contained information of nearly 11 million customers on the computer.

The watchdog said that security is not enough

FSA investigations also claim that Nationwide will not be investigated within 3 weeks after the theft. Currently FSA does not disclose exactly what kind of information is in the laptop because it has not been found.

Nationwide said that the information on the machine could be used to commit identity fraud even though there was no PIN for the withdrawal card, password or money information in the account. But it seems that on the laptop there is a customer's name, address and account number. Therefore, customers of this real estate investment fund are at risk of becoming victims of financial crimes.

The loss of a laptop has made a noise in the British press in November 2006. Nationwide wrote a letter to all of their customers apologizing for information security errors.

This time its CEO, Philip Williamson, reiterated the apology and "wanted to emphasize that no customers have lost money because of this." The company also did not disclose whether the employee who lost the computer was dismissed or disciplined.