The British Home Office is guilty of the loss of a USB stick with the details of 84,000 prisoners, even though it was a consultancy company that lost the data carrier. The Ministry has now promised speedy recovery and an has signed an agreement with the Information Commissioner's Office to tighthen the procedures for protecting data. "Even though a contractor lost the data, the manager of the data (the ministry) is responsible for its security', the privacy watchdog reacts.
On the lost USB stick were the names, addresses and expected date of release of tens of thousands of prisoners. "The Personal Data Protection Act clearly states that organizations should take appropriate measures to ensure that personal information is secure," said Assistant Information Commissioner Mick Gorrill. The stick also contained the details of 10,000 offenders and 33,000 police documents.

Encrypted disk lost
Barely one day after the promise of improvement it became clear that again data had ended up on the street. This time it was the names, salary information, account numbers and security numbers of British officials in 2000. In this case, the drive was encrypted, so the British Council is not concerned should the data stick end up in the wrong hands.