It seems that every week there is another story in the press regarding what can only be described as disturbing cases of data loss.  This week’s story concerns a report completed by Big Brother Watch of 1,035 cases where data has been either lost or stolen from local councils throughout the UK between 2008 – 2011. This can only be a case of unforgivable incompetence on their behalf when handling citizens data seemingly protected under UK law.

So why don’t we just sack everyone that had anything to do with this embarrassment so we can all sleep well at night, safe in the knowledge that our data is now protected by sensible, responsible professionals.

Sounds good and reading some articles in the press this is the typical response. However, I wouldn’t be so quick to condemn anyone just yet.  While these figures are certainly alarming, even more so when looking at the types of data loss involved there is still a lot of information which is unknown.  For instance, one particular case involves a lost mobile Continue Reading

In light of another NHS trust being found to have broken the Data Protection Act (DPA), as a senior manager in the public sector, you may be concerned about how your body can avoid the same fate.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has revealed that Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust accidentally destroyed 10,000 records that were supposed to be archived.

Such documents should have been kept in a special storage area, but they were instead put in a disposal room and destroyed at the end of December 2010.

And while this would appear to be the opposite problem of losing personal details in the public realm, it still breaches the DPA because Continue Reading

Are you an independent financial advisor (IFA)? If so, are you 100 per cent certain that you follow data security measures put in place by the Financial Services Authority (FSA)?

Even if you try your hardest to follow the rules, you could accidentally be leaving gaps in your information compliance procedures.

That is because according to a new study published in the Financial Times Adviser, 80 per cent of IFAs do not meet the FSA's criteria.

Less than a fifth of those questioned encrypted backed-up data to the FSA standard.

Are you guilty of falling into this percentage?

Meanwhile, data has been lost by 11 per cent of IFAs, while three per cent admitted to never backing up their data, the Durell Software poll reveals.

Of those who do back up, three per Continue Reading

Walsall Council has breached the Data Protection Act (DPA) following the disposal of voters' postal statements in a skip.

An external contractor hired by the local authority disposed of the documents in March of this year, with 951 statements yet to be recovered.

It is thought the files – which contained information such as signatures, addresses and dates of birth – have since been destroyed or taken to landfill.

The data compliance error was reported by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), with director of operations Simon Entwistle saying: "While councils can hire contractors to process personal information on their behalf, they must remember that they are still ultimately responsible for ensuring people's information is kept secure."

As such, the DPA was breached as Walsall Council – which has since signed an undertaking – did not inform the contractor of data compliance requirements.

It was recently revealed by the ICO that the DPA was broken by the University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust after a medical student lost a USB pen containing information about 87 patients.

Posted by Adam

Rashmi Tarbatt is the Chief Security Architect at RSA, the security division of EMC. In this video, she looks at whether public or private clouds are secure, whether security should be an inhibitor to cloud adoption, but also what regulatory and governance issues you need to consider when storing data in the cloud.
She also covers other topics such as enterprise vulnerability with regards to mobility, and finishes by looking at aspects of Trust between Service Providers and their customers.
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