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Barclays in second security gaffe this week

Will Knight ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 02 Aug 2000 10:08 BST

Troubled online bank Barclays admitted to another security blunder Wednesday that again led to Internet accounts being compromised.

The "clerical error" was uncovered Tuesday, just days after a technical fault with the bank's overhauled online service compromised the security of numerous customer accounts.

This second security problem arose after two Barclays customers were accidentally allotted the same account within the bank's online system and were able to view each other's information online.

Barclays rectified the problem after one of these individuals reported being able to see details of another customer's account.

A Barclays spokeswoman says that the problem is an isolated incident entirely unrelated to Monday's technical difficulties.

"It was a clerical error," she maintains. "Clerical errors happen all the time and Barclays has 13 million customers. We regret this and immediately amended the records."

Barclays says that transactions could not have been carried out.

The error could not have come at a more inconvenient moment, however, as the spokeswoman acknowledges. She says that without Monday's security breach it would have probably gained little attention.

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