Councils used 'snooper's charter' more than 10,000 times

Still more Council abuse of RIPA. The really shocking information here is just 9% of these investigations led to a successful prosecution, so 91% of their snooping could be described as unfounded.

Surveillance powers originally designed to counter the threat of terrorism and safeguard national security have been used by local councils more than 10,000 times over the past five years - often for “crimes” as minor as littering, it emerged today.

Details disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act showed that councils in England and Wales used powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) to investigate offences ranging from dog fouling to taxi overcharging. more...

Canadian cops cry for BlackBerry wiretap

So this story demonstrates the dichotomy of information security. Blackberry's are (on the whole) pretty secure so this is a problem for the security services.

It has recently dawned on Canadian officials that communications sent with the BlackBerry are among the hardest mobile messages to eavesdrop on. But rather than congratulate the Waterloo, Ontario-based Research in Motion on a job well done, they're calling for laws that would force service providers to use only technology that can be tapped. more...

London health authority put on notice over data breach

I find it unforgivable that public bodies (that we have to provide personal data to) still do not take it's protection seriously. This is a systematic failure and a lack of staff awareness. 

For those of you that do not yet know, data on hard drives (the device in your computer that stores all the information) lives forever. You must have a process for disposing of any computers (business and personal), if you need help contact us.

A north London health authority has been given until the end of the month to improve its information security policies following an embarrassing information security blunder last year.

The Information Commissioner's Office has given Camden Primary Care Trust until the end of the month to pull up its socks following a breach of the Data Protection Act. The ICO's enforcement order comes after PCs containing 2,500 patients' names, addresses and medical histories were dumped beside a skip inside the grounds of St Pancras Hospital last August. more...