UK - Ministry of Defence Stunned by Massive Data Loss

A computer hard drive with the private details of a huge proportion of Armed Forces personnel is missing, The Ministry of Defence said today.

The portable drive contains the names, addresses, passport numbers, dates of birth and driving licence details of around 100,000 serving personnel across the Army, Royal Navy and RAF, plus their next-of-kin details, an MoD spokeswoman said.

It also has data on 600,000 potential services applicants and the names of their referees.

Officials are "not ruling out" the risk that bank account details of personnel were held on the drive, which belonged to its IT contractor EDS.