Leicester City Council confirms new data breach

Council loses memory stick with details of 4,000 members of the public

Leicester City Council has confirmed the loss of a memory stick that contains details of about 4,000 vulnerable people to a local newspaper.

The people were signed up to LeicesterCare, a service that supports vulnerable city residents. The memory stick includes medical details, as well as 2,000 keysafe codes – these are codes that allow carers access to the residents' homes.

The loss has been reported to the police and the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which has begun its own investigation.

The stick was supposed to be locked in a safe each night at the council offices, and all the information is encoded.

This news comes almost two years after Leicester City Council signed an undertaking with the ICO for losing details of 80 children on an unencrypted memory stick.

"We can confirm we are investigating the possible loss of a data device that contains personal details of around 4,000 LeicesterCare users," said a spokesperson for the council.

"At this time we have no reason to believe this data has been removed deliberately," they added.

The council also confirmed that the data would not be accessible to anyone who may find the stick.

Earlier this week security firm Symantec released an annual report highlighting the fact that an average data breach incident cost UK organisations £1.9m in 2010, a 13 per cent increase on 2009 figures.