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Justice minister "angry" at data security breach
Category: Data security
8 September, 2008
A computer hard drive containing personal details of up to 5,000 employees of the National Offender Management System has been lost.The hard drive, which included the names, addresses and National Insurance numbers of prison staff, was lost by private contractor EDS and is the latest incident of lost data in the public and private sectors.
Justice secretary Jack Straw has ordered an investigation into the breach of data security, which happened in July 2007.
He said he was not told of the incident until Saturday.
Justice minister David Hanson told BBC Radio 5 Live that the failure of data protection was "something which I deeply regret and am very angry about as a minister".
National chairman of the Prison Officers' Association Colin Moses told the BBC that the loss of personal information could cost taxpayers "millions" because staff may have to move homes.
Richard Thomas, the information commissioner, announced in June 2008 that he was going to take "formal enforcement action" against the Ministry of Defence and HM Revenue and Customs after the government departments breached data security, the Information Commission Office reported.
