*/
The Ministry of Justice has been fined £180,000 for repeated data security failings over confidential information on prisoners and victims of crime.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) served the penalty following the loss of a back-up hard drive at HMP Erlestoke prison in Wiltshire in May 2013, which contained information on 2,935 prisoners, including links to organised crime, health, drug misuse and material about victims and visitors.
The device was not encrypted. The incident followed a similar case in October 2011, when the ICO was alerted to the loss of another unencrypted hard drive containing the details of 16,000 prisoners at HMP High Down prison in Surrey. In May 2012 the prison service provided new hard drives to all prisons still backing-up data in this way, but without instructing that the encryption option should be turned on. ICO Head of Enforcement, Stephen Eckersley, said: “The fact that a government department with security oversight for prisons can supply equipment to 75 prisons throughout England and Wales without properly understanding, let alone telling them, how to use it beggars belief.”
The MOJ, working with the National Offenders and Management Service, has now taken action to ensure all hard drives used by prisons are securely encrypted. Separately, a paralegal has been prosecuted by the ICO under s 55 of the Data Protection Act for illegally taking the sensitive information of over 100 people before leaving for a rival firm. The information, which included workload lists, file notes and template documents, was contained in six emails sent in the weeks before the paralegal left the firm. He was fined £300, ordered to pay a £30 victim surcharge and £438.63 prosecution costs.
The device was not encrypted. The incident followed a similar case in October 2011, when the ICO was alerted to the loss of another unencrypted hard drive containing the details of 16,000 prisoners at HMP High Down prison in Surrey. In May 2012 the prison service provided new hard drives to all prisons still backing-up data in this way, but without instructing that the encryption option should be turned on. ICO Head of Enforcement, Stephen Eckersley, said: “The fact that a government department with security oversight for prisons can supply equipment to 75 prisons throughout England and Wales without properly understanding, let alone telling them, how to use it beggars belief.”
The MOJ, working with the National Offenders and Management Service, has now taken action to ensure all hard drives used by prisons are securely encrypted. Separately, a paralegal has been prosecuted by the ICO under s 55 of the Data Protection Act for illegally taking the sensitive information of over 100 people before leaving for a rival firm. The information, which included workload lists, file notes and template documents, was contained in six emails sent in the weeks before the paralegal left the firm. He was fined £300, ordered to pay a £30 victim surcharge and £438.63 prosecution costs.
The Ministry of Justice has been fined £180,000 for repeated data security failings over confidential information on prisoners and victims of crime.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) served the penalty following the loss of a back-up hard drive at HMP Erlestoke prison in Wiltshire in May 2013, which contained information on 2,935 prisoners, including links to organised crime, health, drug misuse and material about victims and visitors.
The Chair of the Bar reports back
Susie Griffin on the admin that keeps barristers from billable work
Clement Cowley, Partner at The Penny Group, explains how global events can influence the performance of pensions and ISAs, and why taking a long-term approach to investing is often the most effective strategy
Mário Barroso, Head of R&D and Method Development at AlphaBiolabs, discusses what family law professionals need to know about hallucinogens, from the main hallucinogenic drugs encountered in family proceedings, to their effects and the testing options available
Harmony Christian Ministries is the latest charity to benefit from a £500 donation from AlphaBiolabs via the company’s Giving Back initiative
By David Green
The golden age of advocacy? David Langwallner pays homage to the filmic if contentious barrister Sir Edward Carson and some of his contemporaries
Leah Arthur, a pupil, and her second seat supervisor, John Goss, share their perspectives on building a productive pupil-supervisor relationship
Henry Fingerhut outlines what the Bar Standards Board AI guidance means for early career barristers
The Ministry of Justice will match-fund up to 100 criminal pupillages, with grants available to criminal chambers across England and Wales. Similar to the COIC scheme, the grants will match-fund pupillages additional to those otherwise offered without government funding
Not yet, says Jacob Turner. Regulation, unlike the technology itself, is a domain the legal profession can still control
