Law Firm Fined Over Data Breach

May 12, 2011 - PRLog -- Controversial law firm ACS:Law has been fined £1,000 over the data breach which saw personal details of 6,000 people exposed online following a hack attack by rogue activist group Anonymous.

The Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham would have imposed a fine more in the region of £200,000 had ACS:Law not recently ceased trading.

He also criticised their security controls, saying "The security measures ACS:Law had in place were barely fit for purpose in a person's home environment, let alone a business handling such sensitive details."

The ICO has been criticised for not imposing a heftier fine but claim their hands were tied by the fact the company was no longer in business.

It will be interesting to see in the future how the ICO will treat a business who experience a similar incident and who don't or can't shut down their operations ahead of a hearing.

Even decent sized law firms would struggle to pay a fine of £200,000 for data protection security breaches. It is therefore imperative that security controls are implemented and tested to protect your business and any internal networks that may potentially be exposed to the Internet.

Security consultant Lee Hezzlewood of IT Security specialists Secure Thinking said, "Businesses need to be aware of the risks. All companies are connected to the Internet and therefore need to ensure they have effective controls which are tested on a regular basis."

For more information on effective data security controls visit http://www.SecureThinking.co.uk

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Secure Thinking specialise in helping individuals, businesses and other organisations protect sensitive information, shield their customers and safeguard their interests. Our approach is a combination of policy, technical, training and testing solutions