Secure USB Drive

The UK Government’s data watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), has said that the UK Home Office broke data protection laws when a Home Office contractor lost a USB flash drive containing unprotected information on thousands of prisoners. 

The thumb drive was lost in August 2008 by an employee of the contractor.  It contained the names, addresses and expected release dates of 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales. 

The ICO ruled that even though a contractor had lost the data, the data controller (the Home Office) was responsible for the security of the information.

 As a result, the ICO has also insisted the Home Office signs a declaration promising to hold personal data securely in the future - which will mean all portable and mobile storage devices which are used to store and transmit information must be encrypted. 

 It’s likely that other Government and public sector organisations will be made to follow this policy - meaning that secure USB flash drives will be widely adopted in the coming year.  Let’s hope this signals the end of large-scale public data losses.