DATA OF 84,000 PRISONERS LOST IN U.K

Courtsey – CNET
A Home Office contractor lost a USB stick on which unencrypted data on all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales had been stored. PA Consulting, the contracted informed the Home Office to the loss which supposedly happened on last Monday evening and by midday Tuesday. They confirmed that they were not able to find the USB stick even after a rigorous search.

Sensitive Data About 84,000 Prisoners Lost in United Kingdom

Home Office statement syas that the missing storage device contains:

• Data of all prisoners in England and Wales, including names, birth dates and expected release data in some cases, of about 84,000 individuals
• Data relating to prolific and other priority offenders, including the names and birth dates of approximately 10,000 individuals
• Drug Interventions Programme data, with offenders’ initials

“We have been made aware of a security breach at the offices of an external contractor involving the loss of personal information about offenders in England and Wales,” a Home Office statement said. “A full investigation is being conducted. Police and the Information Commissioner have been informed.”

It added: “The data was held in a secure format on the contractor’s site. It was downloaded onto a memory stick for processing purposes, which has since been lost. The transfer of data on this assignment to the external contractor has been suspended.”

Following the breach, a member of PA Consulting staff has been suspended, a Home Office representative said. The company was appointed by the Home Office in June 2007 to provide application support for tracking prolific and priority offenders through the criminal justice system.

The Home Office refused to comment on whether security measures should have been in place to prevent unencrypted data being transferred onto a USB stick. The representative also refused to clarify exactly what security requirements the Home Office has for external contractors who handle sensitive data.