As you probably know, details of 25 million British citizens were slapped on a couple of CDs and popped in HMRC's internal mail. And the package got lost.

The loss of a couple of CDs is nothing. A pound sterling. But the value of the content is beyond price. Especially to someone disposed to a bit of identity theft.

The lost information includes bank account details, national insurance numbers, names and addresses and birthdays of those involved.

The chancellor used the usual get-out reserved for these situations "so far there is no evidence the data had fallen into criminal hands." I don't want to be alarmist, but if I were a criminal, I wouldn't exactly publicise my ownership of such a treasure trove. I'd let things go quiet for a bit. Wait until the phone companies, building societies, banks or whatever have dropped their guard then move in stealthily to change addresses, secure loans, get benefits and set up mobile phone accounts.

Perhaps I shouldn't mention this, but I've moved house a couple of times recently and I know the sort of questions these officials ask. And I also know how easy it is to offer a different piece of information to that being requested, in order to persuade people of my identity. I even got a password out of one unwitting employee.

I sincerely hope the discs are found, still sealed in their envelope. That would be wonderful news and a great relief to all concerned. If they're not found, or the envelope is tampered with/missing then this is unlikely to be the end of the matter.

This kind of thing is a salutary reminder that people are the least reliable element of any computer system. And it doesn't matter what clever security you put in place, if someone decides to do something daft, then all the millions or billions you spend on a sophisticated system are wasted.

Given that people were around before computers and are likely to be around afterwards, then it's a fair bet that we will always be at risk.

Perhaps it really is time for the government and its agencies to ask themselves exactly why they have to grab and store quite as much information as they do.

They might care to go further and consider the carbon footprint that all their computer systems are responsible for.

Perhaps it's time for a rethink at multiple levels.

You never know, one day we might be glad that today happened.