A computer hard drive with the private details of armed forces personnel is missing, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.
The portable drive contains the names, addresses, passport numbers, dates of birth and driving licence details of around 100,000 serving personnel across the Army, Royal Navy and RAF, along with details of their next of kin.
It also contains data on 600,000 potential services applicants and the names of their referees.
The drive could not be accounted for during an audit conducted by MoD contractor EDS as part of the ongoing Cabinet Office review of data security being conducted by Sir Edmund Burton.
Officials said they were "not ruling out" the risk that bank account details of personnel were held on the drive, which belonged to its IT contractor EDS.
..EDS are a key partner in the Metrix consortium to deliver training in the biggest PFI ever at St Athan.
