His call follows a number of high-profile security breaches in the last year, involving network provider Orange and several high street banks.
Speaking at the launch of his annual report in London, Information Commissioner Richard Thomas warned that organisations failing to comply with the Data Protection Act will face enforcement action by the ICO.
“Over the last year we have seen far too many careless and inexcusable breaches of people’s personal information. The roll call of banks, retailers, government departments, public bodies and other organisations which have admitted serious security lapses is frankly horrifying.
“How can laptops holding details of customer accounts be used away from the office without strong encryption? How can millions of store cards fall into the wrong hands? How can online recruitment allow applicants to see each others’ forms? How can any bank chief executive face customers and shareholders and admit that loan rejections, health insurance applications, credit cards and bank statements can be found, unsecured in non-confidential waste bags?”
Thomas added that while the majority of organisations process information properly, privacy still needs to be given more priority across the UK’s boardrooms.
The report arrives at a time when the public are more aware of their data protection rights than ever before. Eighty-two percent of the public are said to understand that their personal information must be handled appropriately, and the ICO received nearly 24,000 enquiries and complaints on the subject in the last year alone.
In February the ICO found Alliance & Leicester, Barclays Bank, Clydesdale Bank, Co-operative Bank, HBOS, HFC Bank, Nationwide Building Society, Natwest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Scarborough Building Society, The Post Office and United National Bank in breach of the Data Protection Act. It ordered them to sign formal undertakings to improve compliance.
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