By Charlotte Beugge

Security breaches in the last few days both here and abroad show just how easy it is for vital financial information to be mislaid or misused.

According to the BBC, around 1.4 million customers of doorstep lenders Welcome Financial Services Ltd and Shopacheck have been lost.

It says that the Cattles Group, the parent company of both brands, has apologised and that the Information Commissioner's Office is investigating how the loss happened.

Two storage tapes have been lost from its West Yorkshire office, and there is no evidence that the information has fallen into the wrong hands, says Shopacheck.

Welcome Finance stopped lending to new customers in 2009, while Shopacheck specialises in doorstep lending for those who may have been rejected by the mainstream banks and its typical APR is around 399%.

Overseas, the Israeli government has called the actions of an apparently 19-year-old living in Mexico "a breach of sovereignty comparable to a terrorist operation". The hacker, OxOmar, has published details of around 6,000 Israeli credit cards online.

Both these stories will concern anyone who has to deal with a financial company, particularly online.

There are measures you can take when shopping online with your credit card to be safe, such as checking your card details will be securely encrypted before being sent on the internet and also only using retailers which you know or that you have researched first to check they are reputable and reliable.