News What’s going on out there ?

Private sector data breaches up 58 percent For the period 1 April and 30 September 2011, there were 136 breaches reported to the ICO, compared to 86 in the same period last year. Although organisations in the private and public sector are not obligated to report data breaches to the ICO, the increase notifications may be due to greater awareness among businesses of their responsibilities under the Data Protection Act (DPA). Awareness may also have grown on the back of high- profile security breaches this year, such as those by LulzSec and the Sony Playstation hack,  . Lush breached Data Protection Act, ICO confirms  . ICO warns University after student records published on website  . InfoSec: ICO warns on security impact of business budget cuts The ICO’s recent survey of businesses and public sector organisations revealed that nearly three quarters (74 percent) of businesses now know that the DPA requires them to keep personal information secure – up 26 percent on last year’s figure (48 percent). However, the ICO believes that the increase in number of breaches reported indicates that businesses need to act on their heightened awareness. Trial date set for UK’s biggest WEEE export case  The 14 defendants facing charges in relation to the Environment Agency’s largest ever investigation into alleged illegal exports of waste electrical equipment from the UK to Nigeria are set to stand trial in October 2011. The accused – 10 men and four companies – were formally committed to stand trial on a provisional date of October 17, following a committal hearing at Basildon Crown Court last week (April 8). The trial is also expected to take place at Basildon Crown Court. A fifth of WEEE recycled through 'unofficial' routes Thousands of tonnes of waste electrical equipment are being diverted from landfill each year through ‘unofficial’ routes such as ebay, car boot sales and incineration, according to new research from WRAP. The report, titled ‘Market Flows of WEEE materials’ indicates that around 58% of WEEE disposed of in 2010 was reused, reprocessed or recovered in the UK, significantly higher than the 37% reported through approved authorised treatment facilities (AATFs)..  

© DataSafe (a member of the IAP group of companies 2012)