From next week UK organisations that lose sensitive data could be fined up to £500,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office. read more
The Staggering Costs Of Lost Laptops And What To Do About It
I recently read the results of a Ponemon Institute study which indicated that the average cost of a lost laptop was almost $50,000.
The cost was broken down into seven main drivers:
Are You At Risk From Losing Your Tape Backup?
It’s not uncommon for a business in Ireland to use tape backups as a backup solution for their critical data. What is common though is the fear that some business owners have using a tape backup solution.
It’s Time To Change Your Passwords To Something More Secure
You may have seen the recent news that a large security exploit has hit the web for web based email. Thousands of user’s passwords have been published online for services like Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Gmail and other email providers.
Firms leaving themselves open to security breaches
Sunday’s Business Post referenced a recent PWC report highlighting the exposure of many Firms to security breaches and the possibility of sensitive company data or files falling into the wrong hands and possibly compromising the company.
HSBC fined £3m after losing clients’ confidential information – twice
On my way back from a recent business meeting in London my eye was drawn to a newspaper article stating that the Financial Services Authority Board had imposed its greatest fine ever on the bank for losing critical customer information.
Personal Details Of 75,000 People On Stolen Bord Gáis Laptops
You’ve probably already heard the news from yesterday evening about the theft of four laptops from the offices of Bord Gáis in Dublin. If not, a burglary took place on Friday 5th June at Bord Gáis offices in Dublin where the laptops had been stolen. It has been confirmed that account numbers and personal details of 75,000 customers had been held on the laptops.
13 Laptops Stolen From Belfast Civil Service
At the end of last month a break-in at Royston House in Belfast, the Department of Finance and Personnel, resulted in 13 laptops being stolen. Some of the laptops contained personal information including employee names, addresses, National Insurance Numbers, date of births and even bank account numbers.
Open For Blackmail After Data Loss
Things just seem to go from bad to worse for the U.K. Ministry of Defense (MoD) when it comes to how they handle their data. For the past couple of years they have had hundreds of laptops gone missing, scores of USB sticks lost and even external hard drives vanishing from highly secure facilities.
Doctors Surgery Medical Records Go Missing
Medical records belonging to over 8,000 patients of a doctors surgery in Magherafelt, Co Derry, have gone missing. The incident occurred when the surgery sent a tape cartridge containing medical data to an IT firm based in London using a courier company. The cartridge tape was collected in December by the courier but it was reported that it failed to arrive. You can read more about the incident here and here.
When I regularly speak with GP’s about medical data on their computer systems they all share the same concern, losing the data to an outside source. The doctors surgery in Magherafelt most likely shared that concern and had taken precaution by ensuring the data tape had some sort of security protection. A GP from the surgery is quoted saying:
“The computer tape is security protected and requires a specialist programme which is normally only used by GPs and the data verification company in order to make any sense of the information on the tape“.
This sounds as if the medical data was encrypted but there again data encryption was not mentioned in any news articles which could be worrying for some.
If you are a GP or work in a doctors surgery does your practice have adequate data protection for medical records?
