According to silicon.com, a UK hospital trust, part of the National Health Service (NHS), lost the details on 21,000 patients when an unencrypted laptop was stolen from the car of a trust manager.
The manager has been suspended, even as the trust manager has admitted that the laptop should have been encrypted. The Information Commissioner’s office is investigating to see whether the trust broke the Data Protection Act by failing to encrypt the details.
The patient details included names, post codes, dates of birth and treatment details.
The Trust chief executive wrote to all the patients involved, stating:
"The trust offers all affected patients its sincere apologies for putting their confidential information at risk."
However, he felt there was only a "very small chance that patient details can be accessed" and that "the data will almost certainly by wiped by the thief.”
The Department of Health has said it will take six months to encrypt all their machines.
