Five UK retailers are among 19 companies who are facing the threat of legal action from the Information Commissioner’s Office over the so-called “blue-chip hacking” scam in which sensitive data was stolen by rogue private investigators.
Commissioner Christopher Graham has so far refused to name the companies involved, amid fears disclosure would compromise the investigation. However, he is due to appear again in front of the Commons Home Affairs select committee next Tuesday to answer questions about how his office’s inquiries are progressing.
An initial ‘scoping’ examination of the evidence provided to the ICO by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) in August has now been completed. That work aimed at giving an overview of the likely scale of investigations by the ICO.
In a letter to committee chair Keith Vaz, Graham said that as well as the retailers and legal firms, three insurance companies, two financial businesses, a construction firm and a security company were being investigated, as were three further private investigators.
Despite high-profile leaks, which named X-Factor creator Simon Cowell, banking giant Credit Suisse, accountancy firm Deloitte and insurance company Allianz, Graham added there is a “continued need for the committee not to take any further steps to publish the details of clients”.
Vaz said: “I am baffled that for over four years Soca failed to conduct a scoping exercise which has taken the ICO only two weeks to complete.”
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