Data Handling Procedures in Government: Interim Progress Report

[Richard Clayton]

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In article <4791FF8E.5080006@callnetuk.com>, OTC <otcbn@callnetuk.com>
writes

>Peter Tomlinson wrote  on 19-01-08 11:59:
>>>
>>>   
>> The ICO has in public told DoH that they will be prosecuted if they 
>> again allow the exposure that happened with the junior doctors 
>> recruitment system MTAS,
>
>Wow. If he finds people breaking the laws that he is paid to enforce, he 
>tells them not to do it again. Pretty ruthless kinda guy, eh?

that's the extent of the powers he was given -- bottom line is that our
elected representatives weren't prepared to give him any more

> and has obtained a written commitment from them

AIUI, that's not especially significant -- it's the formal notice he
serves on them that matters....

>Yeah. I'll bet they're scared. They might even get fined next time. I 
>wonder whose money they'll use to pay the fine.

it's a maximum of 5000 pounds ... I don't think it will matter one way
or another who pays -- of course if they sacked two layers of management
for getting fined, that might make more of an impact

The FSA is the body that dishes out the big fines -- the Nationwide were
fined 980K when they lost a laptop; but the fine was for being so out of
control of their business that they could lose a laptop and have it
matter...

... as ever, the key question isn't why someone thought it was sensible
to leave a laptop in a car overnight; or even why there wasn't full disk
encryption applied to it; but why someone has a need to have access to
600,000 records in the first place.

If the ICO started asking those sorts of questions, and serving notices
to fix flawed system _designs_, then we might be getting somewhere.

IANAL
- -- 
richard                                              Richard Clayton

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.         Benjamin Franklin

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