National Health Service Accounts For 30% of Security Breaches Among UK Organizations

NHS Data Revelations Bode Badly For NPflT

Dylan Sharpe, bigbrotherwatch.org, April 29, 1010

“When Big Brother Watch released our report into the security of confidential medical dataBroken Records – one of our arguments against the number of non-medical personnel having access to patient records was the huge incidence of data loss within the NHS.

Today that fear has been confirmed as – for at the least the second year running – the NHS has topped the list of UK organisations subject to the highest number of data breaches. As reported by the Health Service Journal:

More serious data breaches have taken place within the NHS than any other UK organisation, according to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

A total of 2897 breaches were reported, accounting for more than 30% of the total number, deputy commissioner David Smith told the Infosec security conference.

The NHS, which is currently introducing digital patient records, said that 113 incidents occurred due to stolen data or hardware, with a further 82 cases of lost data or hardware.

How can we be expected to have faith in the government’s new online programme, when the NHS is incapable of keeping our private data safe now?

The Summary Care Record will provide over half-a-million people with access to our medical records and therefore massively increase the chances of that data falling into the wrong hands.

This latest scandal provides further proof that if you are contacted by the NHS asking for permission to upload your medical records onto the database, take the opportunity and opt out.”

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