Newcastle council credit card file appears on internet

gallery

The personal details of 54,000 people have been accidentally exposed on the internet by Newcastle City Council.

While the authority's management admitted the mistake, they denied that was any indication of fraud or misuse of the data. The problem was unearthed by an independent expert brought in to test systems.

Thousands of credit and debit card transaction details were stored on an unsecured server and could be accessed by computers around the world. Transactions made between February 2006 and April of this year were included in the data left on the exposed server. These included payments for business rates, council taxes, rents and parking fines.

The council became aware of the breach last Thursday and has now informed banks, police and the Information Commissioner.

The council said that the file holding the data contained digital encryption security, "which means that the most sensitive data contained in it would not be accessible or of use without cracking this complex encryption", according to a statement on the council's web page. People in the city have been urged to check their bank and credit card accounts for signs of fraud.

Council chief executive Ian Stratford said in a statement: "We are now fully confident that our systems are properly robust, so we are continuing to receive payments by credit and debit card.

"We very much regret that this situation has developed, although would again stress that there has been no indication of any fraud or loss, and that we spotted this situation through the thoroughness of our own security and checking systems," he added.

One of the city's councillors, John Shipley, said that the breach was "extremely serious".

"My first concern is that every possible measure should be put in place now to protect people whose data might have been compromised, and we have communicated this to the banks and credit card companies," said Shipley.

The council would not comment on the circumstances in any further detail and said this was so as not to compromise an ongoing investigation into the breach.

Email to a friend

Print this page