Probe launched after pupil details go on net



by KAREN DOHERTY


AN investigation has been launched after the details of 273 Werneth Infant and Nursery School pupils were published on the internet.


Oldham Council has confirmed that security has been breached after one person, claiming to be a member of the public, contacted the Evening Chronicle.

He found the names, sex, ethnic origin, pupil number, year group and statistical data of the youngsters in the staff room section of the school’s internal intranet site.

A security password system to stop non-staff accessing the site was not in place.

He did this by tracking down the council’s IP (internet protocol) addresses — which are made up of numbers — which link intranet sites to the council’s main internet.

“Oldham Council has done some stupid things, but hosting the names and data about infant schoolchildren on a website with no password is potentially very dangerous,” he said.

Officers are now checking security at other schools.

Alun Francis, service director for children, young people and families, apologised to parents and said the council and schools took data protection very seriously.

He added: “This information should not be accessible to anyone outside of the school.

“It would be very difficult for a member of the public to access this information as a matter of course as the IP address was made up of a series of numbers rather than a standard web address.

“As soon as we became aware of this breach the school’s intranet site was closed down.

“An initial investigation by the council and Unity Partnership (which runs the council’s back office services) has identified that there was a technological fault with the intranet system. This is currently being rectified.”

For information about the council’s data protection policies, call 0161-770 4827 or visit www.oldham.gov.uk/data-protection-act.htm     

Il mittente di questo messaggio|The sender address of this
non corrisponde ad un utente   |message is not related to a real
reale ma all'indirizzo fittizio|person but to a fake address of an
di un sistema anonimizzatore   |anonymous system
Per maggiori informazioni      |For more info
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