UK government guilty of DPA breach

Website farce exposes details of 50,000 applicants

Iain Thomson

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has been found guilty of breaking data protection laws after a security lapse on a visa application website.

The breach occurred on a site set up by the FCO and the Home Office to handle visa applications from overseas.

Advertisement

An investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) found that a flaw in the site meant that users could see as many as 50,000 other applicants' details when they logged in.

Mick Gorrill, assistant commissioner at the ICO, said: "Organisations have a duty under the Data Protection Act to keep our personal information secure.

"If organisations fail to take this responsibility seriously they leave individuals vulnerable to identity theft and risk losing individuals' confidence and trust.

"We investigate any organisation in breach of the Act and will not hesitate to take appropriate action."

The running of the site was outsourced to Indian company VFS, and a customer alerted the FCO to the problem in December 2005. The flaw remained in place, however, and the FCO only admitted to a problem earlier this year.

Following the Information Commissioner's report, the FCO has admitted responsibility for the breach, corrected the fault and ended its relationship with VFS.

"The VFS online application websites will not be reopened and will be replaced by visa4UK, the UKvisas online application facility which will be the only online application system used by UKvisas," said the FCO in a statement (PDF).

"A strategic review of data processing will be undertaken by UKvisas in order to strengthen Data Protection Act risk management processes, and a detailed audit carried out of the data processor's data security procedures.

"Regular monitoring of the visa4UK website will be undertaken to ensure that the systems in place to provide effective protection."

  • Have your say
  • Send to a friend
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Share

Tags:

Do you agree?

Related whitepapers

Related jobs

Most watched

Social networking

Summit: How businesses should manage their brands online

In part one of V3.co.uk's interview with Dirk Singer, he dicusses social media monitoring strategies

RIM discusses new developer tools

Blackberry exec on the latest offerings for programmers

Analysis and Reports

Remote access - Three steps to getting connected

3.4 million UK professionals now work from home – is your company equipped?

Cost benefits of a global collaboration network

This white paper is a must read for organisations looking for evidence of the bottom-line benefits of high-definition video and voice communications

Poll

Impact of Information Overload poll

Impact of Information Overload poll

What is the biggest problem your firm faces as a result of the data explosion?

View poll results

Advertisement

White paper library

Keep up to date with the latest products, services and technologies from the world's leading IT companies; IThound.com brings you over 6,000 white papers, case studies and analyst reports.

Advertisement

Newsletter signup

Sign up for our range of FREE newsletters:

Existing User

Newsletter user login:

Enter email address to edit your newsletter preferences

Job of the week

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Hiring now on ComputingCareers:

Related IT jobs

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Advertisement

Spotlight

Summit: Views From the Valley

V3.co.uk's US office weighs in on the information overload crisis

money

Summit: Managing information overload in a recession

Balancing exploding data with shrinking budgets

Chambers outlines Cisco's corporate plans

CEO describes broader company focus

Social networking

Summit: How businesses should manage their brands online

In part one of V3.co.uk's interview with Dirk Singer, he...

Primary Navigation