Could it get worse - it just did

According to the Sun newspaper, Britain's top judges have been put at risk after two CDs with their personal details were sent out in the POST.

The discs, containing 55,000 separate files, also had highly sensitive information about hundreds of barristers and solicitors.

Magistrates were also named along with county councils, government departments — and almost every police authority in the country. The discs even had details of Prince Charles’s Duchy of Cornwall Estate.

The information included bank account numbers, sort codes, and home addresses. It would have put those named at massive risk from identity theft and fraud.

Freelance project manager Frank Milford was hired in October 2006 by the Department of Constitutional Affairs to overhaul its financial management.

Frank called up Liberata, an outsourced firm which handled all the Department’s finances, and asked for a list of suppliers expecting to to get company names and invoice details.

Instead two CDs arrived by post to his home containing every person, business or company ever paid by the DCA over the last five years. The CDs were not encrypted and had no password. And the package was not even sent recorded or registered post.

Dozens of judges, Lords and Ladies, professors, doctors, coroners and medical experts appeared on the list of people on the CDs. Many addresses, phone numbers and email details were recorded alongside bank information.

Incredibly once Frank’s work was finished in July, he was not even asked to hand the CDs back.

The DCA is now the Ministry of Justice and Secretary of State Jack Straw is certain to be infuriated by the breach.

A spokesman for his department said: “We will launch an internal investigation.”

Imagine how much those CDs would be worth in the wrong hands. I just hope that Frank has got rid of them before "Burglar Bill" decides to pay him a visit.