The U.K.’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined insurance giant Zurich Financial Services AG 2.3 million pounds (US$3.5 million) for failing to guard against the loss of customer information.
The fine was the highest ever levied by the FSA; a body similar to the SEC in the United States.
Zurich, one of the largest insurance companies in the world, lost confidential information—including identities, credit card information, bank information, and assets—of 46,000 British customers.
The incident occurred when a backup storage tape disappeared during a manual transfer of information between data centers in South Africa, the FSA said.
“Zurich U.K. let its customers down badly. It failed to oversee the outsourcing arrangement effectively, and did not have full control over the data being processed by Zurich SA,” the FSA’s Director of Enforcement Margaret Cole said in a statement. “To make matters worse, Zurich U.K. was oblivious to the data loss incident until a year later.”
The FSA blamed Zurich for not having effective systems and controls to prevent such loss of data during a routine transfer, jeopardizing almost 50,000 people’s confidential information.
“We treated the incident with utmost seriousness,” Zurich U.K.’s CEO Stephen Lewis said in a statement.
The fine was the highest ever levied by the FSA; a body similar to the SEC in the United States.
Zurich, one of the largest insurance companies in the world, lost confidential information—including identities, credit card information, bank information, and assets—of 46,000 British customers.
The incident occurred when a backup storage tape disappeared during a manual transfer of information between data centers in South Africa, the FSA said.
“Zurich U.K. let its customers down badly. It failed to oversee the outsourcing arrangement effectively, and did not have full control over the data being processed by Zurich SA,” the FSA’s Director of Enforcement Margaret Cole said in a statement. “To make matters worse, Zurich U.K. was oblivious to the data loss incident until a year later.”
The FSA blamed Zurich for not having effective systems and controls to prevent such loss of data during a routine transfer, jeopardizing almost 50,000 people’s confidential information.
“We treated the incident with utmost seriousness,” Zurich U.K.’s CEO Stephen Lewis said in a statement.
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