Exactly 18,105 Coronavirus patients registered in Public Health Wales in the United Kingdom got their data exposed on the internet on Aug. 30. Their names, dates of birth, gender, and even location were all accessible online for about 20 hours before it was officially taken down-- it was only announced on Monday, Sept. 14 by the health agency. Here's why it happened.
Wales accidentally leaks COVID data
The data includes each patients' "initials, date of birth, geographical area, and gender."
The agency also clarified that-- though the site was opened for almost a day-- there were no reported cases or evidence proving someone misused the data, calling the risk of identification as low.
Those patients that were identified COVID-19 positive in between dates Feb. 27 and Aug. 30 were the ones that got victimized with the accidental data breach.
"We take our obligations to protect people's data extremely seriously, and I am sorry that on this occasion we failed," Tracey Cooper, Public Health Wales' chief executive, said in a statement. "I would like to reassure the public that we have in place very clear processes and policies on data protection."
Why did it take so long to retrieved?
Chief executive Tracey Cooper told BBC that the recent breach was so far one of the "biggest data breaches" and said that it should never happen in the first place.
Cooper said that the staff should be more alarmed about the breach and "have taken it down quicker."
However, according to her, the person who was first alerted with the breach on Aug. 30 did not follow the procedures when it comes to these scenarios.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Jamie Pancho
