In spite of government moves to tighten data security in the public
sector, there is still much to be done, according to the information
commissioner.
"Data security matters are being taken much more seriously," said
Richard Thomas, "there will soon be much more accountability within the
public sector."
Speaking at Infosec conference, the information
commissioner said that the head of the civil service Sir Gus
O'Donnell's report into the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) breach would
be published shortly, and contains encouraging new regulatory guidance
and advice on avoiding future breaches of a similar magnitude.
"There
will be an increasing emphasis on data minimisation" continued Thomas,
"in instances such as the MOD laptop loss, questions such as why was
such detailed data on so many people kept for so long will become as
important as asking how the laptop came to be unencrypted and stolen
from the back of a car."
He continued to welcome new legislation
allowing the ICO to conduct unannounced spot checks on data controllers
in Whitehall, and announced that Prime Minister Gordon Brown was to
announce similar measures for the rest of the public sector, and
possibly private companies also. "We will be conducting spot checks in
Whitehall departments next year", said Thomas.
In addition, new
legislation within the Criminal Justice Bill currently before the Lords
will make a criminal offence of identity theft, a key step in the
battle against online organised crime.
Personal data has been
lost at least 94 times since the HMRC breach last year, according to a
report from the ICO office yesterday. Government departments were
responsible for more than two-thirds of these losses (62).
The
shadow justice secretary Nick Herbert responded to the report by
accusing the government of not caring about people's personal
information: "It's about time for ministers to get serious about
personal information" he said.
Last November 25million child
benefit claimants' details were mislaid by HMRC in one of the biggest
data breaches of recent years.