Another Wokingham Borough Council data breach

There has been another Wokingham Borough Council data breach that comes just weeks after the ongoing news covering the serious sex abuse victim data leak.

In this latest breach, a resident’s benefit payment information has reportedly been leaked by accident in the post. It appears that it’s another case of human error.

What’s just as worrying is that a recent report appears to have identified that the council has suffered five data breaches in the last year. This latest incident has also hit the news just after the recent apologies over the serious sexual abuse victim breach we previously covered.

Another serious Wokingham Borough Council data breach

Most incidents like this are serious in our view. This latest Wokingham Borough Council data breach was apparently down to human error. These are preventable breaches; whether they’re preventable by better systems, better  processes, or both.

One resident has reportedly said that people have been told that “it happens” when it comes to these kinds of incidents. But this isn’t an acceptable thing to say. Councils and local authority agencies hold a wealth of very personal and often very sensitive data about a lot of people. Councils must treat data security as an absolute top priority. Where they don’t, we may see more victims of data breaches and leaks.

Will there be more Wokingham Borough Council data breach incidents on the horizon?

Given the recent spate of Wokingham Borough Council breach incidents, more could be on the horizon. We hope that these recent breaches will serve as the warning that’s needed for improvements to be made. All we can do is hope that things improve!

It’s understood that changes can be made, and reports may be in the works to help things to improve.

A large number of the data breach compensation claims our team help people with involve councils and local authority agencies. It comes as no surprise to us when we see these incidents taking place, and it shows that more needs to be done.

The growing number of incidents and continual media coverage should hopefully trigger action across the UK. That being said, GDPR should have acted as a big enough deterrent in the first place.

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