NHS fined £375k after stolen patient data flogged on eBay
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust told Out-Law.com that hard drives containing patient data had been sold on the auction website by a contractor it employed to destroy them. A spokesperson for the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said the watchdog had proposed fining the Trust £375,000 over the incident. The Trust has challenged the suggested penalty. "We were the victims of a crime," Duncan Selbie, chief executive of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust said in a statement. "We subcontracted the destruction of these hard drives to a registered contractor who subsequently sold them on eBay.
If you want something done right, do it yourself.
Sure, securely erasing hard drives can be time consuming... but it's a lot better than a 375k fine and the loss of reputation and good will.
