Data Protection Act-Information Commissioner-Data Loss

You may not realise this but as from the beginning of April, failure to take data protection and data loss seriously is no longer an option.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has issued a new guide which means that penalties of up to £500,000 can be imposed for breaching the Data Protection Act.

In its guide the Information Commissioner states:

“We have a statutory power to impose a financial penalty on an organisation if the Information Commissioner is satisfied that:
• there has been a serious breach of one or more of the data protection principles by the organisation; and
• the breach was likely to cause substantial damage or distress.

The power to impose a financial penalty only applies if:

• the breach was deliberate; or
• the organisation knew (or should have known) that there was a risk of a breach which was likely to cause substantial damage or distress, but failed to take reasonable steps to prevent it.

The guide continues that it is the intention only to impose financial penalties in respect of deliberate or reckless handling of personal data which seriously breaches the data protection principles.

Schools have also been warned to check procedures for protecting pupil data after the information watchdog was given powers to issue fines.

Since 1998 we at Redstor have been providing solutions around data backup and data security and if you want any advice around these issues and how the data protection act might apply to you then give us a call.

We certainly have some interesting solutions around laptop data loss as we continue to see this as a big issue in the private and public sectors.