Don’t take your memory stick to the pub !

The Independent reports today on another incident of serious breach of data protection, and, as invariably is the case, this was caused by human error.

Maybe it was a few drinks, maybe it was a long, hard day at the office, or just absent mindedness, but someone left the pub in question with an unexpected present – a list of housing details for no less than 26,000 people including financial data for them.

Luckily the stick was found. The ICO were advised of the breach and somewhat bizarrely have decided not to fine either Wandle Housing Association or Lewisham Homes, perhaps considering that the embarrassment factor would be enough to prompt better procedures.

Businesses and organizations will always be subject to hum an error. Few, if any of us can honestly say we have not left something valuable somewhere in an absent minded or distracted moment. The fault lies at an operational level. It should be assumed that these items can and will be lost or even stolen, so the fact this memory stick data was apparently unencrypted is the real culprit.