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Organisations may find data cleaning proves useful
Oct 7 2011, 11:07 AM
Data cleaning may be an option a number of organisations wish to consider to minimise the damage caused by misplaced technology.
The Association of School and College Leaders was found to have breached the Data Protection Act after an unencrypted laptop was stolen.
According to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the hardware was taken from the Yorkshire home of one of its employees in May this year.
The body reported that a variety of personal information, such as records of mental and physical health and union membership details, relating to 100 people was stored on the laptop.
It noted that the data would have been accessible to the thief because the organisation had allowed staff to choose whether or not they used the software provided to encrypt individual documents.
Commenting on the situation, Sally Anne Poole, Acting Head of Enforcement at the ICO, stated the rules relating to such data are clear.
"All personal information – the loss of which is liable to cause individuals damage and distress - must be encrypted.
"This is one of the most basic security measures and is not expensive to put in place - yet we continue to see incidents being reported to us. This type of breach is inexcusable and is putting people's personal information at risk unnecessarily."
The ICO also reported that a similar breach occurred at Barnet's Holly Park School, with details relating to students, including exam marks, names and addresses left on an unencrypted laptop that was stolen from an office.
Data management may be on the agenda for the school, as it was noted that when the incident took place it had no data protection policy in use.
Earlier this week, the ICO suggested there is "no excuse" for Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust's accidental deletion of patient records that were intended for archiving. 
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