London: The Bank of England (BoE) has come under fire for losing hundreds of remote working devices worth nearly £300,000.

Official figures, obtained under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act revealed that the historic institution saw 333 laptops, mobile phones and tablet computers reported lost or stolen over the last three years.

The data revealed that a total of 216 laptops were recorded as lost, worth a total of £3114. Meanwhile, 109 mobile phones went missing worth an estimated

£1737.

A further 8 tablet computers were reported missing, costing £2294.

Patrick Sullivan, CEO of the Parliament Street think tank accused the BoE of incompetence, saying: “The BoE is blundering towards a major security disaster.”

 Digital Forensics specialist John Lucey, VP EMEA at Cellebrite said: “The Bank of England is tasked with managing highly confidential market-sensitive financial data. With remote and hybrid working patterns now firmly established, it is imperative that all mobile and laptop devices are properly secured and swiftly retrievable in the event of loss or theft. The reality is that every device is a treasure trove of critical data for cyber criminals, which could prove detrimental in the wrong hands.”