Another data loss: 12million people put at risk.

Bloody hell a chap could keep busy just reporting all the data losses by New Labour, its agencies etc.

Ministers have been forced to order an emergency shutdown of a key Government computer system to protect millions of people's private details.

The action was taken after a memory stick was found in a pub car park containing confidential passcodes to the online Government Gateway system, which covers everything from tax returns to parking tickets.

An urgent investigation is now under way into how the stick, belonging to the company which runs the flagship system, came to be lost.

The Department for Work and Pensions insisted that the system's security has not been breached, but a computer expert told The Mail on Sunday that in the wrong hands the data on the memory stick could enable hackers to access personal details of the 12million people who have registered on the system, including their passwords.

Users trying to log on to the site yesterday were met by the message: 'The Government Gateway is temporarily offline. We apologise for any inconvenience. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.'

The Government also closed down access to self-assessment tax applications via the Revenue and Customs website.

For the past six years, the £18million Gateway system has enabled members of the public and businesses to gain access to hundreds of services from 50 Whitehall departments, including self-assessment tax returns, VAT returns, pension entitlements and child benefit.

This year alone, 1.8million people have submitted their tax returns on the system.

Members of the public registering for the service have to provide their personal details, which can include names, addresses, wages, National Insurance numbers and credit card details.

Now watch the usual excuses come forth, all safe, no risk, no one lost any money etc etc. <

The lost memory stick was found two weeks ago outside a Brewers Fayre chain pub in Cannock, Staffordshire, but the Department of Work and Pensions, which owns the Government Gateway, was made aware of its loss only last week when the 2in device was passed to this newspaper.

An expert who examined it for The Mail on Sunday said it contained confidential passwords, security software and the technical blueprint to the system known as the 'source code'. The memory stick is now in the hands of the police.

Concerns have been raised before about the concentration of personal information on the system, but Ministers have repeatedly assured taxpayers that the system was secure.

When The Mail on Sunday told the Department of Work and Pensions that the memory stick had been left outside The Orbital pub in Cannock, a spokesman said they were taking the matter 'very seriously'.

So it was found outside a pub, let me hazard a guess some overpaid tosser decided to take his card and suchlike down to the local for a "working lunch" with his work mates. Several pints of work later he/she wobbles out pissed as a rat, loses card in the drunken fumbling for the car keys and probably doesn't even realise its gone until the story hits the press.

What could be worse is that the HM Govt employee did realise it had gone and just figured who really gives a fuck as its just data on the plebs and said nothing.

An we are supposed to trust these fuckers with national ID cards? Gordon Brown a man who makes me so angry I could punch his lights out

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