When it emerged recently that an unencrypted laptop computer containing the bank account details of 75,000 Bord Gáis customers had been stolen in Dublin, the issue of data protection and encryption once again came to the fore.

The data on the stolen Bord Gáis laptop included bank account numbers, sort codes and bank addresses, as well as the names and addresses of account holders. The incident is the latest in a long line of embarrassing blunders and follows quickly on the heels of news that 15 Health Service Executive (HSE) laptops had been stolen from its offices in Roscommon.

As data security breaches continue to occur, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner fears that some firms are not treating consumer data with the required level of caution.

While much of the discussion around data protection in recent months has centred on the theft of laptops and the lack of encryption, there are a number of other areas that also deserve attention. For example, if an employee is able to download valuable details from a laptop, albeit an encrypted one, onto a USB key, this presents a massive security risk.

What’s your opinion of the risk to data?

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