Nine U.K. Workers Fired For Tapping Into National Identity Database

Nine U.K. government workers have lost their jobs after misusing their access privileges to view personal information on public citizens stored in the government's national identity database.

In total, 34 U.K. local council employees were found to have illegally accessed the Customer Information System (CIS) database, according to a news report. The CIS is one of three systems that will constitute the U.K. government's national identity database, which is currently under development.

The employee terminations and unauthorized access were revealed through a Freedom of Information request made by the British publication Computer Weekly. The report did not say when the unauthorized access took place.