>> Home > Press office > Press releases > Archive from 2007 > Press Release 29: Driver Licensing On-Line
On 6 December, a failure of the DVLA secure Internet connection on our driver licensing on-line system meant that for 80 minutes, personal details of 528 drivers who had logged on to the system were not encrypted. Our IT providers informed us of the nature and extent of the fault on 20 December.
We have a full list of the drivers concerned and of the data involved and will be contacting these customers as a matter of priority. Unfortunately for 153 of our customers these transactions included banking details. We have been advised by our security advisors that the risk to customers is low. There is no evidence that the website was subject to any attack and the window of opportunity for hackers was very limited. Nevertheless, we will be contacting each of the affected customers to explain what action they can take in the extremely unlikely event that their identity has been compromised.
We have told the Information Commissioner and will be advising the police of this issue.
Noel Shanahan, DVLA Chief Executive, said today: "I apologise for the worry and inconvenience that this incident may cause to our customers. We are writing to each of those affected to explain what they can do to reduce any risk from our error. I have asked for an urgent explanation from our IT providers and for detailed plans to make sure that this will not happen again. Customers have widely welcomed our online services and they can be assured that I will continue to do everything necessary to ensure that our systems are secure".
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