A barrister has been fined £1,000 for failing to keep clients’ sensitive information secure, after her husband updated software on the couple’s home computer.
The husband’s action resulted in information belonging to 250 people, including vulnerable adults and children involved in Family Court and Court of Protection proceedings, being uploaded to the internet. Some 725 unencrypted documents, which were created and stored on the computer, were temporarily uploaded to an internet directory as a back-up during the software upgrade.
According to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the information was visible to an internet search engine and some of the documents could be easily accessed through a simple search.
Steve Eckersley, head of enforcement at the ICO, said: “This barrister, for no good reason, overlooked her responsibility to protect her clients’ confidential and highly sensitive information.
“It is hard to imagine the distress this could have caused to the people involved—even if the worst never happened, this barrister exposed her clients to unnecessary worry and upset.”
