With society on red-alert over ”cyber-crime” we’re all concerned with the security of our personal information when using tech and gadgetry in our day-to-day life is unavoidable. With regular reports of intrusions on high profile account servers like the Playstation Network, malicious parties sneaking a peak at our comings and goings via public Wi-Fi connection and voicemail hacking, that concern is more than justified.
The latest threat to public security comes not from an online collective of mastermind hackers, but simply a contractor who left a USB stick full of 26,000 UK tenant’s personal information including 800 bank account details in a pub..
The blunder meant that the unnamed contractor has put his employer Lewisham Homes in hot water with the Information Commissioner’s Office for breaching the Data Protection Act over the way it handles important information and the company (and the contractor’s previous employer) has agreed to review its security measures and ensure that gadgets used for transporting data are properly encrypted.
Fortunately the USB device was found and passed on to the police. Head of Enforcement at the ICO says of the incident: “Saving personal information on to an unencrypted memory stick is as risky as taking hard copy papers out of the office. Luckily, the device was handed in and there is no suggestion that the data was misused.”
Very lucky indeed.
The Gadget Helpline is doing its part to help protect your privacy and valuable information, starting with – How to Stop Your Phone Voicemail From Being Hacked!
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