The latest information security lapse has happened in Charnwood
in Leicestershire, where taxpayers' personal details were found on
a hard drive which was sold for £6.99. The details are said to
include bank account information and sort codes.
Charnwood Borough Council has said that it is investigating the
incident and has traced the hard drive and is awaiting its
retrieval.
The Council said that it reported the matter to the police, who
have now arrested someone in relation to the sale of the
device.
"The case has been referred to Leicestershire Constabulary as a
criminal investigation and we can confirm that an individual has
been arrested and is assisting the police with their enquiries,"
said a statement from the Council. "We have traced the hard drive
and are currently retrieving it. The purchaser is co-operating with
Charnwood and has stated that the data has not been distributed to
any other parties."
Leader of Charnwood Council Richard Shepherd promised that a
review into the data loss would be held.
“I regret the concern caused to Charnwood residents by this
serious matter," said Shepherd. "We will give every assistance to
the Police in their further investigations and I will personally
ensure a thorough review is also completed by the Council to find
out how this happened.”
Last week a machine was taken from a company which stores banks'
records, Graphic Data. The device contained banking
information on up to a million customers of Royal Bank of Scotland,
NatWest and American Express.
Privacy regulator the Information Commissioner's Office last
week urged organisations to create privacy protections in every new
system they build because organisations are storing more and more
information on individuals.
“For many years we have urged organisations to consider the
impact on individuals’ privacy before developing new IT systems.
However progress has been disappointing," said Jonathan Bamford,
assistant commissioner at the ICO. "In our view organisations could
be doing more to protect individuals’ privacy by adopting ‘privacy
by design’."
Editor's note, 02/09/2008: When this story
first appeared it referred to a laptop being sold on eBay. We
understand that only a hard drive was sold. We apologise for the
error.
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