The University of Greenwich has been fined £120,000 by the Information Commissioner following a “serious” security breach involving the personal data of nearly 20,000 people.

The personal data included contact details of 19,500 people including students, staff and alumni such as names, addresses and telephone numbers. However, around 3,500 of these included sensitive data such as information on extenuating circumstances, details of learning difficulties and staff sickness records and was subsequently posted online.

The full circumstances of the breach are available on the ICO website –  https://ico.org.uk/action-weve-taken/enforcement/the-university-of-greenwich/

The ICO have reported an increase in the number of complaints- Between May 25 and July 3 of this year, 6,281 complaints were lodged with the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), compared to 2,417 from the same period in 2017.

Hettle Andrews partner with Storm Guidance a specialist cyber and data risk management firm – contact our risk services team to see how your Insurer can assist you together with Storm to assess your individual exposures to cyber crime and data breach  – amy.moran@hettleandrews.co.uk