Ministry of Justice

Breach details

What Emails containing sensitive personal data concerning prison inmates accidentally sent to members of the public. This information included coded offences, addresses, identifying physical characteristics and location within the prison.
How much Three emails containing the details of 1,182 prisoners.
When 04 July, 11 July and 01 August 2011.
Why Each day HMP Cardiff manually transfers prisoner details from their network system Quantum onto a biometrics database in order to facilitate visits and other prisoner movements. The data is copied and pasted through Windows Explorer and thus can remain on the clipboard of Quantum. On 01 August the prisoner details were accidentally attached to an email to a member of the public booking a visit to a family member in HMP Cardiff. The individual reported this incident the next day and it was only at this point that the previous two emails came to light as they had not been reported by their recipients or noticed by the prison. Each email was sent by the same recently appointed booking clerk. Shortly after the breach was reported each recipient confirmed in writing that the data had not been disseminated further and was fully deleted; physical access was allowed to confirm this for two of the recipients and the other had already double-deleted the message and attachment.

Regulatory action

Regulator ICO
Action Monetary penalty of £140,000.
When 15 October 2013.

Why the regulator acted

Breach of act Breach of the Seventh Data Protection Principle: there should have been a more secure method of carrying out routine transfers of high volumes of personal data. More effective training and supervision should also have been provided, along with clear written procedures for the data transfers.

The monetary penalty notice has been imposed to promote compliance with the Act and standardisation across the prison service to prevent similar incidents occurring elsewhere.

Known or should have known As the Ministry of Justice routinely handles sensitive personal information and carries out high volume daily data transfers it should have been obvious that a breach could result in substantial distress and that there was a potential for human error in the absence of technical measures, written guidelines and appropriate training.
Likely to cause damage or distress The coded offences were deemed by the Commissioner to be particularly likely to cause damage or disress as almost all of the coded offences are easily recognisable. Fortunately the emails were only sent to one person on each occasion but had the data got into the wrong hands, such as an inmate’s rival, it would have raised the level of distress. The Prison decided not to disclose the breach to the prisoners as those at risk of self-harm might have suffered additional anxiety, confirming that some prisoners would suffer greater distress than others.

Luton Borough Council

Breach details

What Personal data including information on the health and ethnicity of the data subjects.
How much Two cases.
When December 2012 and January 2013.
Why Two separate incidents involved incorrect handling of personal data by social work staff. In the first case an email containing personal information about a family was sent across an unsecured internet connection and also sent to an agency unconnected to the family. In the second case papers were lost in an accident when a member of staff took them home when leaving work early due to severe weather.

Regulatory action

Regulator ICO
Action Undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle.
When 11 September 2013.
Details Staff are to be trained in how to follow the Council’s procedures for the storage and use of personal data by 30 November 2013. Training is also required before staff are granted access to the Council’s sytems and should be refreshed within two years. In addition to training new procedures covering such issues as the transporting of personal data outside of the office must be drafted by 30 November.

Aberdeen City Council

Breach details

What Four documents containing sensitive personal information were accidentally uploaded to the internet by a member of staff working from home. The data includes names and addresses, dates of birth, details of alleged criminal offences, and information about Social Care cases concerning children.
How much Four documents totalling 39 pages.
When 8 November 2011 to 18 February 2012.
Why A Council employee inadvertently downloaded four sensitive documents onto her PC when accessing them from home (either by email or by USB) between 8 November and 12 November 2011. These were then uploaded to a website by an auto-upload program pre-installed on the computer thereby making the data available to the public. The documents were discovered on 15th February 2012 and were removed (along with all cached versions) within four hours. However, on 18th February a national newspaper published a story on this incident although personal data was not included after a discussion with the Council.

Regulatory action

Regulator ICO
Action Monetary penalty of £100,000.
When 27 August 2013

Why the regulator acted

Breach of act Breach of the Seventh Data Protection Principle: the Council failed to introduce a secure home working policy or provide the training and equipment to make the home a secure place to work.
Known or should have known The Council was clearly aware that there were inherent risks with staff accessing sensitive personal data at home as it had an acceptable use policy. However, the Council did not supply the necessary equipment to make homes secure places to work from.
Likely to cause damage or distress The disclosure of personal information of the data subjects is likely to cause them substantial distress, particularly when this information was supposed to be dealt with in confidence. The data is particularly sensitive as it identifies vulnerable individuals.There is also the risk that the information may have been further disseminated and misused.

Mansfield District Council

Breach details

What Personal data of housing benefit claimants was disclosed to the wrong housing association.
How much An undisclosed number of records.
When August 2009 to November 2012
Why Correspondence containing personal data was sent in error by the council’s Revenues and Benefits service to a Mansfield housing association over an extended period.

BW Comments

What is interesting about this breach is that it was reported to the ICO by the housing authority that received the data in error, and not Mansfield Council. I suspect that the housing association will first have contacted the Council and after that had no effect on the incorrectly addressed correspondence (the breach continued for three years), alerted the Commissioner. The Council’s real failing was to not fix the problem when told about it.

Regulatory action

Regulator ICO
Action Undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle
When 25 January 2013
Details Employees and any other staff with access to personal data must be made aware of, and trained in, the policy for storage and use of personal data. Training must be provided to contractors as well as staff, and records of training to be maintained.

BW Observations

The breach was almost certainly due to administrative human error; however our view is that the enforcement action was taken as a result of the council not fixing the problem when it was initially alerted. The core problem was that the council didn’t have a sufficiently robust plan to identify and rectify a data breach when it was first reported. The undertaking should have also included a requirement for the Council to develop and test a breach response plan, which identified data breaches and ensured they were rectified.

Prospect

Breach details

What Loss of sensitive personal information (Union membership).
How much About 19,000 records.
When 08 Dec 2011
Why Two files containing member data were sent as part of a tendering process to an unknown email address in error. The files were encrypted but the password was also sent seperately to the same address.

BW Comments

This breach illustrates two issues that all Data Controllers need to be aware of. The first is that test data should always be anonymised, not only does it increase the risk of breaching the seventh principle, but it will also breach the first and second principles; although interestingly the ICO only took action in respect of the seventh principle. Secondly, any encryption is only as good as the key (password) management – passwords should always be sent at a minimum by a separate channel.

Regulatory action

Regulator ICO
Action Undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle
When 16 Jan 2013
Details The data controller to ensure that adequate policies are in place to cover transfer of data to third parties, that such data is minimised and anonymised, that all staff receive data protection training, and that appropriate security measures are in place to protect personal data.

BW Observations

Although this was a sizeable breach of some 19,000 records of sensitive personal data, the ICO obviously decided that an undertaking was more appropriate given the potential harm that could result.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council

Breach details

What Loss of sensitive personal information.
How much 11 records.
When 14 December 2011
Why 11 unencrypted emails relating to a child protection case were sent to the wrong email address by mistake.

Regulatory action

Regulator ICO
Action Monetary penalty of £ 120,000
Enforcement notice issued to ensure that a training program to make staff aware of data protection security procedure is arranged within 35 days.
When 25 October 2012

Why the regulator acted

Breach of act Failure to take appropriate technical and organisational measures against unauthorised processing of personal data, in particular a failure to train employees appropriately and provide a secure means of sending email.
Known or should have known Staff were used to handling confidential and sensitive personal data and the danger of sending unencrypted email, which the data controller was aware was occuring, should have been self evident.
Likely to cause damage or distress Data was confidential and highly sensitive and related to an ongoing legal case.

South Yorkshire Police

What
Loss of personal data

How much
600 records.

Why
Personal data, relating to drug offences by 600 arrested individuals, was accidently included in a spreadsheet given to a journalist following a Freedom of Information request.

Regulator
ICO

Regulatory action
Undertaking issued to ensure that all responses to FOI requests are double checked, preferably by a manager, to ensure that no personal data is included. Written procedures should be implemented and staff must be training in following that policy.

Reason for action
The Commissioner felt that the likelihood of identification was reduced as the offender’s names were not included in the attachment. Formal assurances were received that the email and spreadsheet were promptly deleted. All staff members have since been provided with comprehensive training relating to FOI requests.

When
26 June 2012

Links
View PDF of the South Yorkshire Police Undertaking (Via ICO Website)

View PDF of the South Yorkshire Police Undertaking (Breach Watch Archive)

Holroyd Howe Independent Ltd

What

Loss of personal information.

How much

All payment records for the data controller’s employees.

Why

A data processor received a request from one of the data controller’s ex-employees for a copy of one of his payslips. In error, the data processor, which was acting on behalf of the data controller, emailed him a PDF document showing the relevant month’s payslips for all the data controller’s employees.

Regulator

ICO

Regulatory action

Undertaking issued to ensure that all staff are made aware of the data controller’s amended policy for the storage and use of personal data and are appropriately trained how to follow that policy. Personal data transmitted over email must be encrypted to a sufficient standard.

Reason for action

In the course of investigation, it emerged that the data controller did not have a formal contract in place governing the processing of personal data by this data processor. It was noted that job-related training was given which included emphasis on confidentiality and sensitivity of data where appropriate, although some improvements were identified in relation to policies and procedures. It was further noted that remedial action taken in response to this incident had been prompt and thorough and that no adverse consequences had resulted.

When

23 May 2012

Links

View PDF of Holroyd Howe Independent Ltd Undertaking (Via ICO Website)

View PDF of Holroyd Howe Independent Ltd Undertaking (Breach Watch Archive)

Cheshire East Council

Breach details

What Inappropriate disclosure of sensitive personal information.
How much One record.
When April 2011
Why An email containing sensitive personal information relating to an individual of concern to the police was distributed to 180 unintended recipients, due to mistaken forwarding of the email, following errors of communication in the “Potentially Dangerous Person Unit”.

Regulatory action

Regulator ICO
Action Monetary penalty of £ 80,000
When 15 February 2012

Why the regulator acted

Breach of act Sensitive email mistakenly forwarded to over 180 recipients.
Inappropriate organisational and technical measures.
Known or should have known Staff were aware of the sensitivity of their work by its very definition, yet an assistant officer had not received any data protection training.
Likely to cause damage or distress Details could jeopardise the data subject’s livelihood.

Bolton Council

What

Loss of sensitive personal data.

How much

“Several”

Why

A rucksack contained hard copy documentation relating to several individuals was stolen from a keyworker’s car. A second incident was also reported during when an email was sent in error to several hundred people containing a full occupational health form for one player.

Regulator

ICO

Regulatory action

Undertaking issued to ensure that hard copy documentation is only removed from the office or secure storage when absolutely necessary and must contain the minimum amount of personal data required. Thorough risk assessments are to be completed for all mobile working arrangements.

Reason for action

  • In the case of the first incident it was discovered that the carrying significantly more paperwork than necessary without the knowledge of management. Investigations revealed that despite the fact that many employees are predominantly mobile workers the implications of how to handle data in a mobile environment had been insufficiently considered. Employees had however received appropriate training relating to the removal of personal data from the office.
  • In the second incident it transpired that autofill is often used when sending emails and that existing email groups do not differentiate between internal and external addresses.

When

10 February 2012.

Links

View PDF of the Bolton Council Undertaking (Via ICO Website)

View PDF of the Bolton Council Undertaking (Breach Watch Archive)