ICO raps Leicester council for data breach

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It’s a slap on the wrist for Leicester City Council, as the Information Commissioner has forced it to better secure its data after an unencrypted memory stick with personal information on 80 children was lost by a council-run nursery.

The council reported itself to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) after the loss in November last year, and will now be required to improve its data handling procedures.

According to the ICO, the council has agreed to better train its staff and check up on them and contractors to ensure policies are being followed.

Mick Gorrill, Assistant Information Commissioner at the ICO, said: “We recognise that Leicester City Council acted responsibly by reporting the breach to the ICO and took remedial action. However, the council must consistently implement robust processes to protect people’s personal information at all times.”

Leicester City Council had not responded to our request for comment at the time of publication.

Gorrill noted that 516 data breaches have been reported to his office since November 2007 – when the HMRC infamously lost 25 million records.

Click here to read the 11 lessons we should have learned from data breaches.

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