Court admitted that Zurich’s security procedures had failed, but she said that the insurer would tighten its internal controls. Zurich has written to every customer who may have been affected, but Court said that the company had not yet discovered any examples of customers’ accounts being tampered with or any of their personal details being cloned.

In some cases, the lost data included bank sort codes and personal contact information, including addresses and telephone numbers.

Court said that data covering both individual customers and small businesses were included on the tape. She described the affair as “unacceptable both for us and our customers”.

Court emphasised that only general insurance customers, of which Zurich has a total of 4 million in the United Kingdom, were potentially affected. She said life policy customers did not need to be concerned.

Nevertheless, the insurer is advising customers to contact their banks to ensure that their account details remain safe.

Source: Times Online