UK Public Sector Bears Majority of ICO Data Breach Fines
The United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) recently released information detailing data security breaches in Great Britain between March 2011 and February 2012. The report came after a Freedom of Information request by satellite manufacturer/TV broadcaster Viasat.
All businesses in the UK are bound by the Data Protection Act of 1998, which is enforced by the ICO to prevent data breaches of personally identifiable information (PII). However, the report found that while the private sector accounted for more than a third of all reported breaches (263 cases), it paid just one £1,000 fine, leaving the public sector (467 cases) with the vast majority of the £791,000 total.
Data security is a global problem, and insufficient reporting/enforcement makes incidents difficult to accurately track and, more importantly, prevent. Government agencies with a commitment to customer privacy spend a lot of money protecting data to avoid crippling fines, (the ICO levied a £140,000 fine against Midlothian Council in 2011 for repeatedly leaking personal data about children and their caregivers to the wrong recipients).
The security of protected health information (PHI) is a particular risk for healthcare institutions, and in the UK, they must comply with strict regulatory mandates not only from the Data Protection Act but also from their individual Safe Haven Policies. As a result, in the UK and around the world, the smart money is on secure document management and delivery.
The National Health Service (NHS) is the UK’s publically funded healthcare network, and its 1.7 million combined staff serve more than 62 million citizens. NHS Manchester turned to OpenText Fax Appliance for its document delivery solution. Prior to adopting a network fax approach, fax machines were spread out geographically, and security was limited to keeping fax machines in locked rooms. Now NHS Manchester employees enjoy consolidated digital document transfer and can send and receive faxes directly and securely from the desktop. All faxes are stored and routed through a central database, and retain a full audit trail recording any access or other activity. With less paper documents changing hands, the likelihood of data breaches is greatly reduced.
To learn more about Fax Appliance, click here.
To read the full NHS Manchester case study, click here.


May 2, 2012 





