and we have information and security policies in place.
Umm so no checking service that halts any emails going out with hundreds of email address's in the To field,
Or checking for plaintext email address's
About 800 people in Buckinghamshire had their email addresses leaked by their district council in an email about waste collection. Aylesbury Vale District Council sent out a message to 840 people about garden waste collection that had everyone's email addresses pasted into the main body of the missive. The council told The …
Poor;
"About 800 people in Buckinghamshire had their email addresses leaked by their district council in an email about waste collection.
Aylesbury Vale District Council sent out a message to 840 people about garden waste collection that had everyone's email addresses pasted into the main body of the missive."
Better;
840 people in Buckinghamshire had their email addresses leaked in an email about waste collection.
Aylesbury Vale District Council sent out a message that had everyone's email addresses pasted into the main body of the missive.
The lovely thing about this is that the email recipients are council-tax payers in that area. So if the council is fined for this breach, the people who will have to foot the bill: either through increased CT to pay the fine directly, or through reduced services to make up the budget shortfall, will include the people who had their email addresses exposed.
There can't be many situations where the victim of incompetence is also the person who is punished for it, instead of the person who made the mistake. Isn't local government wonderful?
How about the councillors have a fine deducted from their pay?
- it shows that they are ultimately responsible for the running of the Council and are more likely to take steps to ensure that these mistakes are not repeated (i.e. by improving systems/training or removing impediments).
- it doesn't affect the ratepayers other than potentially causing a councillors to be fined
- the goodwill that a politician paying to improve something that directly affects the electorate would be measurable
While it may have the downside of reducing the number of people who wish to become involved in local politics, look at the types of people that get involved in local ad central politics.
Councillors are an elected fig leaf with no control over the officers, who are mandated by central government to do things regardless of what the chamber says. I know of councils where councillors may not even talk to the staff unless the chief exec is present. They certainly can't instruct them.
BCC are idiots, I live in this council. Their IT is worse than Beavis and Butthead when you try to use their pathetic websites.
Even Dale Farm residents could do better. I have a Hotmail account just for BCC as their so pathetically Dain Bread it isn't funny.
Entire council is an Epic Fail.
that you understand the difference between Buckinghamshire County Council and Aylesbury Vale District Council? (I live in one, but the other starts a couple of miles down the road.)
It's not unusual for the county to deliver IT services (such as they are) on behalf of their local districts, but I don't think this is the case for AVDC.
ICO: Tut, tut, tut!
Bucs CEO: (grovel,grovel) We're so sorry. We take data protection very seriously, and have policies in place.
ICO: I'm goinf to have to fine you GBPxxxx.xx.
Bucks CEO: Oh, yes Sir. (aside) we'll just up the council tax a further pound, and collect bins once a month.
ICO: This must not happen again.
Bucks CEO: Oh, no, Sir. Lessons have been learned.
...
...
(Three hour later) Deputy CEO: I say, someone left their laptop in a pub, and it has disappeared. It had all the CT payers' bank details on it. And the guy who was using it didn't understand all this business about passwords and excryption.
Bucks CEIO: Oh, well, another crow eating session.
Possibly quite a clever move, actually. It's not fraud, but involving the team sounds impressive. Hremit extendsfraud, and doesn't cover incompetence. So the council can honestly say 'its been investigated, and the staff involved cleared of any wrongdoing'. Ie its a textbook case of answering a question you wish you had been asked 'are we dishonest' in order to avoid answering the question you should be asked 'are we competent'.