British Council loses data on 2,000 staff

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The British Council has lost a disk containing sensitive information on 2,000 staff members.

The BBC reported that the disk contained names, salaries, national insurance numbers and bank account numbers, while the council noted the disk was lost in December.

In a statement released to the BBC, a British Council spokesman said: "It was sent according to our agreed process with the usual secure TNT courier service but was not received by our human resources team.”

The British Council also said that the information on the disk is compressed by an algorithm and is not on an ordinary CD-ROM. The data can only be accessed with special equipment using specialised software which is no longer manufactured and cannot be bought anywhere.

The British Council said in a statement: “These precautions ensure that the data is extremely secure in the unlikely event that the disk should fall into the wrong hands.”

TNT has informed the British Council that they are still taking steps toward locating the disk. The system used for data transfer is being examined and, for now, no data is being sent.

Click here to read the data breach lessons many organisations - including the British Council - need to learn.

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