ISA report reveals email security lapse
The Independent Safeguarding Authority's first annual report reveals that it sent an email with confidential data to the wrong address. The incident, which occurred in the organisation's first full year of operation, was followed by an investigation which concluded that the lapse was due to human error rather than procedural …
What a crock
A procedure that allows humans to fail, fails
They should have their nuts crushed
"... rather than procedural failures."
General Buck Turgidson: "Well I don't think it's quite fair to condemn a whole program because of a single slip up" - From Doctor Strangelove (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)
Ian Huntley did NOT work at the school of the girls he murdered. His girlfriend worked at the school and that's how he came to know them. Therefore, the fact that he was a school caretaker matters not one bit. This error just helps to propagate anti-paedophile hysteria. I expect better of the Register.
As for the ISA's little 'oops', that's just typical. Wait until they lose the entire database. Any day now...
> it sent an email with confidential data to the wrong address.
There are 3 problems here:
1) They send confidential data by unencrypted e-mail. Anyone could read it in transit.
2) They send confidential data by e-mail. If you get into the habit of doing this, it's predictable that someone will eventually mistype the e-mail address.
3) They mistyped the e-mail address
> an investigation which concluded that the lapse was due to human error rather than procedural failures
If your procedure involves "human types in e-mail address and gets it right 100% of the time", then your procedures are broken. No-one is perfect, a screwup is inevitable. However, a whitewash "investigation" that blames it all on some minimum-wage clerk is much better than a real investigation that points out the procedure chosen by management is wrong.
I don't see where the article says Huntley worked at the girls' school. Besides, it's a syndicated article.
Damn, I should have placed that bet on how long it would take.
Option request: Allow users to select multiple icons in the same response
I don't think the government email system allows GB size attachments, like the whole database.
"From 1 November 2010 it will be mandatory for all people taking new jobs or changing jobs in relevant roles to be registered with the ISA."
And ISA forwards them, "by accident", of course, to employers and police archives.
Yet another layer of Stasi-type of action.
Like commenters earlier said, any, supposedly "safe" , procedure which uses hand-written e-mail addressess, is broken by definition.
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