UK Gov't Loses Data on 25 Million People... Including Bank Details
from the we're-from-the-gov't,-and-we're-here-to... dept
At this point, you should probably just assume that all your private data is in the hands of someone who shouldn't have it. However, if it's not, you can rest assured that private companies and universities and government agencies are hard at work making sure they leak your data to someone who shouldn't have it. The latest takes place in the UK, where a gov't agency appears to have lost two CDs containing the personal details, sometimes including bank info, of all families with children under 16. Everyone involved seems to admit this is a colossal screw up, but that's pretty much what is said each time one of these happens, and yet we keep hearing of more. As per usual, the blame is being placed on "junior" staffers who supposedly didn't follow security procedures, so we'll probably see a few people fired and then we'll all forget about it for another month or so until the next big data leak comes along.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
notice how bottler brown is out of the country... again
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
We need a new information monopoly legal framework
All personally identifiable information about me should be my property and I should have copyright style monopoly powers over such information. Let's call it "IdentityRight". Spill the information that I have licensed to you for some purpose, the contract says you pay me N dolars in compensation. Get caught holding unlicensed information about me?? Criminal offense.
Ok, somebody ...please... slap me before I develop this idea any further.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: We need a new information monopoly legal frame
[ link to this | view in thread ]
BwaaHaHaHa
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Just say No to ID Cards
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Just say No to ID Cards
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: We need a new information monopoly legal frame
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Firing people...
I wouldn't fire the poor sod who lost the disks, but the following list;
*Supervisor, for not supervising
*Manager, for not managing
*Owner of the DB, for having an incredibly stupid DB where a "junior staffer" has access to download 25m records
*Whoever negotiated and signed off on the out-sourcing deal that says scrubbing confidential data is an extra cost
*The person who decided not to incur that extra cost
I'd also like to see the outsourcing contract cancelled and re-tendered.
We can all dream... but dreaming of pink fluffy elephants might be slightly more realistic.
[ link to this | view in thread ]