Data Loss

Customers of German chemist chain Schlecker have been exposed in their hundreds of thousands after an error by the IT vendor used by the firm. Over 150,000 customers are believed to have been affected by the incident during which anyone could have gained access to detailed personal information via the internet. The vendor quickly patched [...]

DSG Retail, the firm which operates various high street brands including PC World and Dixons, has been the victim of a brow-beating at the hands of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), after it emerged that it had improperly disposed of personal details relating to several customers. The data in question was located close to an [...]

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has become involved in a data loss incident involving Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) after it emerged that the firm had become the victim of laptop theft. The laptop which was stolen is deemed to be particularly vulnerable to exploitation because it is completely unencrypted, leaving personal financial details of customers [...]

Malicious software on a USB memory stick is being blamed for the most significant loss of data ever to have been recorded by the US military. US secretary of defence William Lynn said that a foreign agent was able to hack into a laptop using malware which was installed from a USB stick and he [...]

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has become involved in another data loss scandal involving an NHS trust, this time located in Wolverhampton. The Data Protection Act (DPA) was breached by the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust after it emerged that more than 100 patients had their details exposed in a moderately serious data loss incident. [...]

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has imposed fines of nearly £2.3 million against the UK arm of Zurich Insurance over a serious data loss incident in which 46,000 of its customers had their details exposed. The fine is a new record and the FSA’s Margaret Cole said that it was appropriate because Zurich had failed [...]

A medical clinic in Dudley has come under fire after it emerged that patient records and unused prescription forms were left abandoned in the car park directly adjacent to the practice. The data loss appears to be one of the most basic possible, although it is not known whether the records were accidentally or deliberately [...]

The Ministry of Defence (MoD), which was recently the subject of a data loss scandal involving the loss or theft of 340 laptops over a two year period, has said that it will be significantly improving the levels of security to which it subjects its data and portable devices. A spokesperson for the MoD said [...]

The German government has been revealed as the latest international power to have voiced concerns over the way in which the encrypted email services used by BlackBerry smartphones and their contemporaries are handled, arguing that they pose a threat to national security because of the potential for data loss and security breaches. Canadian-based BlackBerry manufacturer [...]

Data storing service Evernote has admitted that it has lost data relating to over 6000 of its users from around the globe. The data loss occurred after a server failure last month and Evernote used its official blog to publish a statement from CEO Phil Libin, outlining the type and extent of the disaster. Mr [...]