Zürich authorities investigating HSBC data theft

The Zürich authorities are said to investigating an alleged theft of data by a former employee of HSBC which has placed up to 24,000 Swiss client accounts at risk. The authorities are looking into HSBC's individual security measures and systems to see if they have been followed to the letter and indeed if any changes can be made to ensure no such allegations crop up in the future.

Switzerland has a reputation as one of the more private countries around the world and the revelation that up to 24,000 accounts could have been compromised is not one which the authorities would wish to repeat. Data theft is becoming more of a problem in the worldwide financial marketplace as bank details and personal details can assist fraudsters greatly in their pursuit of ill gotten gains.

It has to be said that Switzerland is not the only country around the world which is experiencing an increase in data theft activity with a number of instances highlighted in the UK over the last 12 months. Whether it is the greater dependence on the Internet or indeed more sophisticated attacks by the fraudsters is open to debate but one thing is for sure, financial losses from ID theft and data theft have increased dramatically of late.