A report by the BBC has presented some shocking findings made by a UK information watchdog.
The report highlighted the lax attitude which is being adopted by councils with regards to keeping data secure.
There are 1,035 cases of UK councils experiencing data loss between 2008 and 2011. Of particular concern in the report was the exposure of data relating to children, as well as other vulnerable members of society.
One incident in Wales involved Cardiff council wrongly sending the names and addresses of 2,400 children, on the child protection registry, directly to the NHS.
Kent and Buckinghamshire were among the councils which lost the most data, with 72 cases each. Just below them, Northamptonshire and Essex had 48 and 62 cases respectively.
Wales are arguably the worst in the UK at keeping data secure however, with 8 out of 22 councils experiencing data loss in the last three years. This prompted Anne Jones at the ICO in Wales to express “serious concern.”
“It’s vital that local authorities properly live up to their legal responsibilities to keep personal data secure, particularly where it is sensitive information about children and young people” said Jones.
Data loss is becoming increasingly more concerning with more users utilising an ever-increasing array of mobile devices. There is often no remote deletion policy in place for such hardware. In addition with many organisations pushing more of their infrastructure into the Cloud, the urgency to implement tighter security measures has never been more crucial.
