Lessons on confidential data disposal Safety & Security
B
y Anthony Pearlgood, Chairman, Information Destruction (ID) Section, British Security Industry Association (BSIA) When it comes to the disposal of confidential data, it is imperative that educational establishments ensure that they have the right measures in place to protect themselves against the threat of data breaches. Should sensitive data fall into the wrong hands there is invariably no control of how, when, or where it is used, with the potential for criminality such as identify fraud. Alongside the immediate repercussions, there is also the longer term reputational damage to be considered – negative publicity that no school or college wants - and the prospect, in serious cases, of penalty fines for breaches of the Data Protection Act.
To put this into some sort of perspective for educators, at the BSIA ID Section we recently conducted a survey of head teachers, deputy heads, teaching staff and administrators from nearly 100 schools across the UK. This sought to establish the challenges faced by schools with regards to information destruction. It is clear from this that here can be no room for complacency as 79% of respondents said that the threat posed by lost, or inadequately disposed of data, had increased, or stayed the same, over the past 12 months.
A real concern, brought out by our research, is that only 34% of schools said they used a professional company to deal with the destruction of their confidential data and, even more worryingly, of these only half knew if the operator actually met the pivotal European standard – EN15713. Crucially, at the BSIA we recognise the critical nature of EN15713. Our members are all required to met the standard so there is a verifiable audit trail and to vet staff engaged in these activities to BS7858. As well as sensitive paper waste being shredded, effectively, care and attention also needs to be given to computer- related media, in light of the large quantities of data that can be stored in this way. Another fact that the survey picked up on is that just over a third of school staff had failed to receive any training regarding data protection issues. Partly this shortfall can be attributed to the multitude of responsibilities that today's school leaders face, including ensuring that staff do not
have criminal records, however it is imperative that secure data disposal is not overlooked. Interestingly, our research found that headteachers were taking the lead on information destruction in 57% of cases and, crucially, that the biggest data concern for schools was protecting student records – 80% - followed by financial data and staff records.
In parallel research, questioning members of our ID Section about their experiences, we asked how education customers had dealt with the data disposal prior to employing their services. The response was that in 43% of cases this simply involved using local authority or general waste schemes. Sadly, there is still a misconception that a local authority recycling programme is a safe and secure process when, in reality, it has not been designed to be secure. From the point it is generated paper may be left in an open container and eventually transferred to a larger unsecured container, making it especially vulnerable, before any processing takes place.
October 2012
So the message has to be for schools and colleges that confidential data disposal is an area that requires care and attention. A few points to take away from this would be to treat all paper waste as if it is confidential, make sure that you use a reputable provider – BSIA membership is a good starting point here – and reiterate to all staff the serious implications that can result when data is not processed securely.
uFor more information on secure data destruction and best practice, visit:
http://www.bsia.co.uk/shredding
uA video highlighting the findings of the BSIA research can be viewed at:
http://youtu.be/zqoc0ACRydQ
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