BBC partner loses children's data

The BBC has admitted the loss of the details of a number of children who had applied to take part in a in a new BBC1 kids cooking show called Gastronauts.

It is thought the personal details of around 250 children being stored on a memory stick was stolen from a car belonging to a member of staff at Objective Productions, the production company making the show, while parked at Ikea.

The device contained the names, addresses and mobile phone numbers of children, as well as dates when families were planning to be away.

The BBC has since informed the parents of those affected and apologised for the incident. The broadcaster has also said that, thus far, there is no indication that the data has been used for malicious purposes.

"This data was not lost by the BBC itself, but stolen from an independent production company working for CBBC. However we took the issue very seriously," said a BBC spokesman.

However, security experts have slammed the breach, saying that both parties should have ensured that the data was properly protected before being put on the memory stick.

"This loss of data clearly highlights an issue for businesses when sharing sensitive information with third parties," said Greg Day, security analyst for IT security company McAfee.

"Large organisations may feel confident in their own security practices, but problems can arise when information is being shared with third parties who may not have implemented sufficient security settings."

"This loss of information would not have posed any kind of threat if the memory stick had been encrypted. As a result of weak security procedures, the stolen data has in fact provided valuable information with which to perpetrate both virtual and physical crime."

Similarly, Jamie Cowper, director of marketing at data protection expert PGP Corporation in EMEA, believes that "previous incidents should have served as a warning" to the BBC, which should have reviewed security procedures before the event occurred.

"If there were any lessons to be learned from HMRC, it’s that data stored on removable media – be it CDs or USB sticks – is just as susceptible to loss or theft and should by no means be forgotten when it comes to enforcing corporate data security policies," said Cowper.