The Weston Mercury - Residents' data lost in stolen council laptops

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Residents' data lost in stolen council laptops

23 August 2009

RESIDENTS' personal data held by North Somerset Council has gone missing after laptops were stolen.

It remains unknown whether or not the device on which the confidential details were held was protected.

The local authority is yet to encrypt all of its mobile electronic equipment.

A total of thirteen council laptops have been stolen over the past three years.

The unitary authority has 701 laptops and all potentially hold files that may contain personal information.

Details of these unfortunate incidents were revealed only after the Mercury submitted a Freedom of Information Act request.

The unitary authority also admitted it 'is unable to provide details of lost or stolen CDs and USB sticks'.

Officials do not maintain records of these and the ICT department workers are not informed when they are lost.

Figures released by Town Hall officials show that four laptops were stolen in 2007, the same year as computer discs containing the personal details of 25 million people were lost by HM Revenue and Customs.

Concerns were raised at the time that fraudsters could use the information to obtain credit cards or mobile phone accounts.

Executive member for asset management, Councillor Carl Francis-Pester, said council staff are personally responsible and face 'disciplinary procedures' if data is misused.

He added: "We have a strict policy about physical access to systems and the security of machines.

"Our policy is not to assume absolute security on whatever system we are using."

The council has almost 3,000 PCs including 157 Blackberrys, which are mobile phones capable of downloading email and other data.