A senior barrister who failed to keep clients’ sensitive personal information secure has been fined £1,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Information belonging to up to 250 people, including vulnerable adults and children, was uploaded to the internet when the barrister’s husband updated software on the couple’s home computer.
Some 725 unencrypted documents, which were created and stored on the computer, were temporarily uploaded to an internet directory as a back up during the software upgrade.
They were visible to an internet search engine and some of the documents could be easily accessed through a simple search.
Six of those files contained confidential and highly sensitive information relating to people who were involved in proceedings in the Court of Protection and the Family Court.
Source: Information Commissioner’s Office