Will the fallout from the News of the World scandal hit the banks next?

It seems that not a day goes by without more revelations of hacking and data theft relating to the News of the World and its sister publications. The latest is that the Sun obtained information that Gordon Brown’s son has Cystic Fibrosis. With the newspaper having this information and the only parties formally aware of it being the family themselves and their doctors’ it would appear that there was either another phone hack or there are leaks from the medical profession. There are also reports that the Abbey National provided financial information about Brown’s accounts to a journalist “blagging” his way through security  - more than six times. Well done that they picked it up – eventually – but surely this was closing the door after the horse had bolted.

With the police being investigated for leaking information on the Royal family and others – for substantial payments from the media – it cannot be long before there is some evidence of payments to staff elsewhere (such as banks or doctors) who have access to confidential information.

The threat of the rogue insider, as described by the information commissioner, is very real and it is relatively easy for staff with authorised access to look at the system for details on a customer. With the added incentive of a payment from a journalist, or even organised crime with other uses for the data, it is all to easy for a cash-strapped employee to be persuaded to provide the information.

Some organisations have great staff monitoring systems, but in my experience there are many which cannot tell if an account has been accessed by a member of staff snooping as their logs only show account transactions and not “views”.  You may wonder how the paparazzi always know which hotel their target celebrity is staying at – it’s easy – phone your contact in the credit card company and see where there has been a transaction or authorisation.

So as the investigations into journalism and ethics at the News of the World continue I’m willing to bet we hear more about paid leaks of other information - and the banks should watch out as they are likely to be the next target. With the public desire for gossip on celebrities and the Royals showing no sign of diminishing if organisations don’t put suitable controls in place to protect data from snoopers both inside and outside their organisation they only have themselves to blame when the regulators and politicians hold them to account.