RESIDENTS’ email addresses were leaked in a data breach at Stratford District Council.
SDC said it became aware of the data breach on Monday November 20 and it immediately referred the matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
In a statement the council said initial investigations suggested that the data breach was restricted to a database of email addresses which had been supplied to SDC by residents and did not believe at this stage that any further personal data was affected.
The statement continued that it was believed that the data breach was an isolated incident and did not reflect a general failure of internal controls.
SDC has instigated a full internal investigation to determine exactly what has happened and to identify the scope of the data breach.
The council is also liaising with other agencies including Warwickshire Police.
SDC chief executive David Buckland added: “The privacy and security of personal information is paramount, and we are extremely concerned that such a data breach has occurred.
“We take these matters very seriously and immediately commissioned an internal investigation to understand how this happened. We sincerely apologise to those who may have been affected by this data breach on behalf of the council.
“We have self-reported this as a data breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office and will cooperate fully with them and or any other agency as maybe required.”
SDC said it could not comment further at this time so as not to interfere with the ongoing investigations.
