Second-hand laptops contained masses of personal data

TWO LAPTOPS bought from a firm that went into administration were re-sold even though they contained payroll data, a mass of personal data, employment contracts and 300MB of company HR emails, it has emerged.

Grant Thornton, administrators of the Source Claim Support Limited, admitted machines containing confidential data were sold to a computer wholesaler without masses of personal data being erased.

Stuart Brown, who bought the laptops, told the INQ that the statement accepting liability had taken a few days, and he had to prod and provide more information each time he contacted Grant Thornton. He said the firm skirted over how sensitive the firm was, and both the agent it used and the company he bought them from were just as responsible for not checking out the machines were clean.

In a statement to Brown, a Grant Thomas representative said: "Since being informed of this matter, both my team and my indepedent agents (who were contracted to 'degauss' the computers prior to resale), have been in the process of conducting a thorough investigation into how this breach of process and protocol has occurred."

The statement continued that degaussing equipment which should have been used was working, and Grant Thompson thinks the breaches were as a result of human error.

Said the Grant Thornton rep: "I am currently in the process of retrieving all the computers that may have been subject to the systemic breach which has occurred."

The firm said it will be moving fast to confirm the breach was an isolated instance.

"We are grateful that this matter has been brought to our immediate attention and, with your agreement, we would like to collect the laptops and replace them with equivalent models which will allow myself and my team to complete our enquiries." µ