If you’re going to have a data gaffe, try to avoid having a reporter be the recipient….
Chris Williams of The Register reports:
Police face accusations of incompetence after accidentally emailing a file detailing the results of thousands of criminal records checks to a Register journalist.
The author of the email at Gwent Police is now facing a gross misconduct investigation and potential sacking over the incident, which came to light this week.
The file — a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet which was not encrypted or password protected — contained the full names and dates of birth of 10,006 people in jobs or applying for jobs where a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) disclosure is required.
[…]
Gwent Police asked The Register to consider not publishing a story about its serious data breach saying it would undermine public confidence in the force, but we declined.
Heh. Yeah, I would have declined, too.