NHS loses laptop and 8.6m medical records
By Deborah Bates
16/06/2011
An NHS laptop that had around 8.6 million medical records stored on it has gone missing, and was allegedly unencrypted - leaving the thieves with fill access to the confidential information.
According to TheSun.co.uk, the laptop went missing around three weeks ago, but it was only in recent days that the NHS told the police.
Although no official statement has come from the NHS, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) did reveal that it is "making inquiries" into the data breach.
Many industry experts have spoken out regarding the carelessness of the NHS and its repeated loss of information.
One such person was Nick Lowe, an IT security expert, who told ITPro.co.uk: "The scale of this potential data loss drives home just how essential it is to have mandatory, strong encryption on all...personal laptops and portable storage devices - even if those devices are stored in supposedly secure areas."
His comments should encourage the NHS and other companies to apply the same strict IT system management procedures to laptops as are used for desktop computers - particularly when the confidential details of millions of Britons are involved.
ITPro.co.uk confirmed that within the missing laptop, details of many people's abortions, mental illness and HIV cases were stored. Although not all files included names, all did reveal the age, ethnicity and gender of the individual concerned.
