UK Council Loses Memory Stick with Details of 18,000 Residents
Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council somehow managed to lose a memory stick that contained information on 18,000 of their residents. The stick, which was lost in May, contained details such as names, addresses and payment info but fortunately, no bank account records were present. As it turns out, the USB storage device had been used by an officer from the institution's finance department to collate information required for final accounts.
The ICO began an investigation and found that the data protection practices were in breach with the Data Protection Act. While most of the info was of public interest and was already published online, the Commissioner's Office considered the council failed to provide data protection training for its staff.
“Storing the details of over 18,000 constituents on an unencrypted device is clearly unacceptable. This incident could have been easily avoided if adequate security measures had been in place. Luckily, the information stored on the device was not sensitive and much of it is publicly available. Therefore, the incident is unlikely to have caused substantial distress to local people,” said Acting Head of Enforcement, Sally Anne Poole.
