UK Justice Secretary orders probe into lost prison staff data

London, Sept.7 : A computer firm's disclosure that it has lost personal details relating to thousands of British prison staff, has prompted the country's Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, to order an urgent inquiry.

According to The Independent, US firm Electronic Data Systems (EDS) has admitted to losing data containing the names, dates of birth, National Insurance numbers and prison service numbers of up to 5,000 employees of the National Offender Management Service.

It was revealed last night that EDS staff only realised the data was missing in July.

Straw, it seems, only found out yesterday about the lost data, after a letter about the missing drive was passed to a newspaper. He said he was "extremely concerned".

Opposition politicians condemned the incident as a "serious breach in security".

ANI