2008 is the the year the public began to really hear about data loss; with numerous example of data loss throughout the year, and reports into data loss.
The reports where pretty damning, and the scale of data loss was staggering, 100,000s of records lost regularly and the HMRC losing data at around 10 items a day.
Despite the huge amount of data lost in the UK, and reports from data loss elsewhere in the world, the UK government did not manage to effectively introduce policies to prevent it.
Data Loss Examples in 2008:
Government Agencies
NHS: The NHS lost a lot of data in 2008, with a selection of examples below:
- 9 NHS trust admit losing millions of records.
- 4 out of 5 NHS trusts lose medical records
- List of NHS losses produced by the Freedom of Information Act (its a long article!)
- 45,000 medical records lost
- 21,000 medical records lost
- The NHS also moved a lot of records out to other company with 300 million medical records moved out of the NHS and the patients data being shared with council
HMRC: A report by Kieran Poynter into the loss of 25 million records in 2007 by the HMRC states that “serious institutional deficiencies” and states that there losses were “entirely avoidable”
Since the “big one” of 2007, when 25 million record were lost, and on the back of the report by Kieran Pynter report (above) the data loss rate for the HMRC increased in 2008, not decreased.
MoJ and Home Office
- MoJ lost 4 CDs containing criminal case information, the CDs were un-encrypted, giving people access to highly confidential material
- Ministry of Justice lose 5,000 records
- Home Office lose 84,000 prisoner records
- UK Government lost 3 million driving license records, on an un-encrypted hard drive
- Lancashire Police lose a laptop.
- West Midlands Police lose a memory stick
Foreign Office
FCO admits losing 10,000s of records.
MoD: The MoD lost almost as much data as the NHS, with a sample of the data loss highlighted below.
- The MoD lose 600,000 records, on an un-encrypted laptop
- MoD lose another laptop
- MoD admit losing 650 laptops
- RAF lose 50,000 records
- Army lose 1.5 million records
- MoD Report: Report into Data Loss, by Sir Edmund.
DWP: The Department for Work and Pensions lose USB Drive
Individuals within the government: A couple of high profile individuals lost data as well as all of the departments listed above.
Hazel Blears lost her laptop, which was un-encrypted, and “Critical Terror Files”, where left on a train
Private Companies
HSBC: HSBC did not have a good year for data loss either:
- HSBC lost an entire server, the data was not encrypted
- HSBC lose 37,000 records, on an un-encrypted media.
- HSBC, along with UAE and others also suffered a data theft from their banks
Virgin: Virgin Media were censored by the ICO following their data loss
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