Data losses just keep on coming in April.

Posted in 'Identity Theft' by Richard Catlin

01 May 2009

Less than a fortnight after the European Commission launched a scathing attack on the Government for failing to put sufficient safeguards against data losses in place, another round of embarrassing breaches has emerged.

First, an unencrypted laptop containing details of around 1,400 patients was stolen from a locked room at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, and although the NHS claimed that the data was protected by passwords and numeric coding, computing experts have warned that it could easily be overcome by someone who knew what they were doing.

The NHS was forced to issue another apology a week later after details of over 5,600 patients - including personal details such as NI numbers - were downloaded to an unencrypted memory stick by an administrator and then lost in Leeds Metropolitan University Library.

Affecting only a small number of people, in another breach by a local authority, letters containing contact details and signatures were inadvertently uploaded to a council website in Scotland for 10 days before being taken down.

And in addition to further separate breaches in April affecting the SAS and Serious Organised Crime Agency, (where details of undercover agents and informants in Columbia were left in a handbag on an airport bus), the British Council was forced to sign a formal undertaking to keep personal data safe after admitting losing a disc containing personal data and bank details of 2,000 members back in December 2008.

All in all, it wasn’t a good month for our some of our public services keeping our personal data safe.

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