THERE has been no shortage of publicity in the past year about the loss or leakage of supposedly private data by government departments and major businesses.
The climax probably came last October when the government announced it had lost two disks containing personal details of 25 million people.
These incidents have left public faith in the ability of departments to keep such information secure at an all-time low.
advertisement
And they are only part of the problem that the public sector seems to have with large scale IT projects.
Now fears have been raised by auditors over "significant system security issues" and "major risks" with software used by Lancashire County Council to store its social services files.
Council officers have insisted no data has been lost and say they are taking steps to improve the security of the system by identifying any possible risks and suggesting improvements.
The sensitivity of social services files is too obvious to need to spell out.
The worry is that with the national spotlight already on computer security, there should not have been any need for auditors to point out these potential problems.
Posted by: simplysimon, burnley on 12:49pm Wed 9 Apr 08
There is money to be gained and the leaking of personal information is advantageous to many coporate, marketing, advertising and black marketeers.
There is no financial benefit in a secure system.
Nothing the council can come up with will make anything secure.
Meetings will be held and mutterings will go on. The system will create problems and then appoint auditors to look into the causes of problems.
Why would anyone [bold]care[/bold] about the info-security of People they do not know and have never met.
Losing information is becoming an industry in itself.
A database with millions of names and addresses is worth a fortune. It can be sold and sold and sold and re-sold for years to come.
When government agencies say these details have been lost, it also means your personal details are up-for-sale.
There is money to be gained and the leaking of personal information is advantageous to many coporate, marketing, advertising and black marketeers.
There is no financial benefit in a secure system.
Nothing the council can come up with will make anything secure.
Meetings will be held and mutterings will go on. The system will create problems and then appoint auditors to look into the causes of problems.
Why would anyone care about the info-security of People they do not know and have never met.
Losing information is becoming an industry in itself.
A database with millions of names and addresses is worth a fortune. It can be sold and sold and sold and re-sold for years to come.
When government agencies say these details have been lost, it also means your personal details are up-for-sale.
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
Print
Email this
Comment
