Holes in the Swisss Post office ... a cheesy story

Andrew Chapman, an IT manager from Oxford bought a computer / hard disk drives on e Bay for £35 , which it now appears, not only contained bank account numbers, phone numbers, mothers' maiden names and signatures of one million customers of American Express, NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland, it was, "pre owned" by Graphic Data Ltd.,and was used at the firm's archive centre in Shoeburyness, Essex.

What no press reports seem to mention is ....

MailSource UK Ltd, a subsidiary of Swiss Post since 2002, based in Richmond, Surrey, acquired Graphic Data Ltd , based in Milton Keynes – a company with 200 employees that specializes in digital document management in April this year.

MailSource UK Ltd and Graphic Data have worked together in the form of a strategic partnership since 2006. In the field of physical mailroom services, MailSource UK Ltd was already the market leader in Britain. With Graphic Data, it now offers a wider range of services, such as credit card application processing or automated invoice settlement.

"MailSource have over ten years of experience in managing the provision of On-Site Mail and Courier Screening Services to clients across the UK, many in what are considered to be high threat industries including several Government Departments."

CNN reported yesterday "The IT equipment that appeared on eBay was neither planned nor instructed by the company to be disposed," said Nicole Morgan, spokeswoman for Graphic Data, based in southeast England. "Investigations are ongoing to find out how this equipment was removed from one of our secure locations."

Jenny Thomas, a spokeswoman for eBay, said the item should have never been sold on the auction site.