Stories of the month - November 2007

This month started with an iPhone bang and ended on a data-loss whimper as the UK suffered its largest-ever data breach thanks to Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) misplacing 25 million child benefit claimants' records.

Two password-protected CDs containing the child benefit information were sent unrecorded and unregistered by a junior HMRC official through courier TNT to the National Audit Office on 18 October - but never arrived and have not been found.

In the wake of the breach, HMRC has been criticised by security experts and and CIOs. The government has now agreed to data security spot checks across all departments, and ministers are calling for an ID cards review.

Stories of the month - November 2007

Click on the links below to read the stories everyone is talking about...

Missing: 25 million child benefit records

Poll: In a fight between Vista, OS X, Linux, XP...

iPhone in the UK: Hands up who wants one?

Wi-fi piggybackers 'fess up

Tesco IT chief steps down

The cashless revolution is coming...

Minority Report: Apple's blues

The A to Z of green IT

Peter Cochrane's Blog: Blind security

How did 25 million records get 'lost in the post'?

Apple has had a mixed time too - despite its long-awaited iPhone hitting the UK's shelves - the Mac maker also launched its Leopard OS last month but some users found their machines struck down by the 'blue screen of death'.

And according to a poll of silicon.com readers Windows XP would be top dog in an OS battle, with Mac OS X coming in second place.

But the iPhone UK launch was met with a warmer reception among consumers (especially among a few die-hard fans who braved the cold to queue outside the Apple store overnight) - read all the silicon.com coverage of the gadget everyone is talking about here.

And Apple CEO Steve Jobs also featured in the A to Z of green IT - which highlights the opportunities and pitfalls of businesses being eco-friendly - alongside the Queen, WEEE and You.

Another technology big wig - Tesco's IT chief - stepped down from the retail giant after six years to pursue a new challenge this month too. Group IT director Colin Cobain announced he is leaving at the end of November after leading the IT implementation behind Tesco's first US stores, which opened in Los Angeles this month.

November also saw the reopening of the London St Pancras station, which is now the new home to the Eurostar and a high-speed train service to the south coast.

Let's hope St Pancras doesn't start enforcing the 'one item of hand luggage' rules of the UK airports - something which has really got the goat of silicon.com columnist Peter Cochrane.

Cochrane wasn't the only one to get hot under the collar, topics which got silicon.com readers fired up in November included suggestions of a cashless revolution and the legislation surrounding wi-fi piggybacking.

A number of readers claimed wi-fi piggybacking should not be a crime and that they leave their wi-fi networks unencrypted purposefully, to allow others to get online.

Encryption certainly seems to be the buzzword of the month - it could have saved a lot of red faces in Whitehall if only those HMRC CDs had been encrypted.