Controversial law firm ACS:Law has been fined £1,000 over the data
breach which saw personal details of 6,000 people exposed online
following a hack attack by rogue activist group Anonymous.
The Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham would have imposed a
fine more in the region of £200,000 had ACS:Law not recently ceased
trading.
He also criticised their security controls, saying "The security
measures ACS:Law had in place were barely fit for purpose in a person's
home environment, let alone a business handling such sensitive details."
The ICO has been criticised for not imposing a heftier fine but claim
their hands were tied by the fact the company was no longer in business.
It will be interesting to see in the future how the ICO will treat a
business who experience a similar incident and who don't or can't shut
down their operations ahead of a hearing.
Even decent sized law firms would struggle to pay a fine of £200,000 for
data protection security breaches. It is therefore imperative that
security controls are implemented and tested to protect your business
and any internal networks that may potentially be exposed to the Internet.
Security consultant Lee Hezzlewood of IT Security specialists Secure
Thinking said, "Businesses need to be aware of the risks. All companies
are connected to the Internet and therefore need to ensure they have
effective controls which are tested on a regular basis."
For more information on effective data security controls visit
http://www.securethinking.co.uk/
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