BBC reports:
A laptop containing the personal details of 125,000 potential and current students at Staffordshire University has been stolen.
A member of staff took the computer home where it was stolen from a car.
The data included the address, telephone number and email details for applicants dating back to 2006.
The university said the files are password protected. It has written to those affected to “apologise for any concern” caused.
Read more on BBC.
MAD AS HELL
I go to a great deal of trouble to keep my data secure and I am livid that a staff member at Staffordshire University has not done the same. The disingenuous University officials are down-playing the theft of 125000 people’s personal details. Are they not aware that in 2014 even the scallies know personal data is worth money and identity theft is rising rapidly year-on-year or don’t they care? I think the latter which is why I am so mad.
Why am I, and all the others affected, condemned to worry about the outcome of this person’s actions for years, even decades, to come? We are condemned to trying to imagine every possible scam that may be contrived and to spend large periods of tedium going through every letter and email we receive like a detective looking for the tiniest discrepancy? As for phone calls, I hate to think. And what of the person who did not adhere to the Data Protection Act? Oh yes, they get reminded of their obligation to protect applicants data and extra training to ensure it doesn’t happen again!
Does anyone know the best course of action to make these complacent academics really remember not to breach data protection again? Compensation? But how?
Suggestions received with thanks.