Three HSBC Holding subsidiaries has been fined a total £3 million (US$4.9 million) for failing to protect their customers’ confidential information.

The fines, imposed by the UK’s Financial Services Authority on Jully 22, constituted the highest ever handed out the regulator for data security breaches.

They consisted of £1.6 million for HSBC Life UK, £875,000 to HSBC Actuaries and Consultants, and £700,000 to HSBC Insurance Brokers.

In imposing the fines, the FSA said that the three wholly owned HSBC Subsidiaries had sent out customer information that was unencrypted through the mail or courier services to third parties. On two separate occasion, the data never arrived at its intended destination.

The authority said one of the firms, HSBC Acturaries, had posted two floppy disks on two separate occasions contain customers’ information, and which was lost. The bank was then warned that it would have to strengthen its security procedure to avoid similar incidents, but further losses occurred despite the warning – including an unencrypted CD with details of 180,000 policy holders including their names, ages, sex, dates of birth, and policy numbers.

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Chinese police have launched an investigation into the suicide of a young Chinese engineer at a Taiwanese electronics maker, after he was allegedly beaten up by a security official over the course of an internal company investigation.

Sun Danyong, 25, was an employee at Foxconn, a company which manufactures products for Cupertino-based Apple Computers. Reports indicate that Sun, who was responsible for sending prototypes of the popular iPhones manufactured by the company to Apple, had been under investigation after he lost one of the devices at an undisclosed date.

According to the reports, Sun had allegedly been subject to “unbearable interrogation techniques”, including interrogations, harassment, and even been beaten up by an official in Foxconn’s Central Security Division. A few days later, he leapt to his death from his 12-storey apartment window.

Foxconn has issued a statement saying that it has initiated an investigation on a section chief of its security department for possibly using inappropriate interrogation methods, including unannounced home searches, solitary confinement, and physical violence.

The company’s general manager Li Jinming has been quoted by various media outlets in apologising for the incident, and attributing it to a “lack of management”. He added that the official who questioned Sun had been suspend and is under investigation by the police.

A spokesman for Apple told the Wall Street Journal that it was saddened by the death of the contractor’s employee and was awaiting the results of the investigation. He added the company required suppliers to treat their workers with dignity and respect.

The newspaper noted that Apple is well known for requirement suppliers to sign contracts imposing massive financial penalties if any confidential information was leaked. Foxconn also has a history of treating its employees poorly, such as in 2006 when it admitted it forces some employees to work 80 extra hours each month – in contravention of China’s labour laws.

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