Financial services firm loses 1.4 million customer records

A financial services firm has admitted losing backup tapes containing sensitive information relating to 1.4 million of its customers.

The Cattles Group owns Welcome Financial Services Limited and its business Shopacheck, and is based in Yorkshire. The firm said in a statement that the tapes went missing at the end of November 2011, and that investigations began as soon as the loss was discovered – although it has only recently written to customers to warn them.

"Cattles Group confirms that two IT back-up storage tapes are missing from its Kingston House [headquarters]. The tapes were discovered as missing at the end of November 2011 and an investigation started immediately," it said.

The firm has described the nature of the missing information as "low-level personal data". However, Computing understands that this includes names, addresses, dates of birth and payment histories.

The missing tapes also include some HR information relating to staff employed by the group up to October 2010.

The company said that there is nothing to suggest that the tapes were stolen.

"There is no evidence that the information has fallen into the wrong hands or been used maliciously. However, Cattles takes its obligations to protect the personal data of its customers and staff extremely seriously, and we deeply regret what has happened," it added.

Cattles group stated that a specialist data security firm has been employed to review data security across the group and to advise on any necessary improvements.