Measures to protect information carried on laptops used by Macclesfield Borough and Cheshire East Councils’ officers and elected members in the event of theft or loss are being brought in.
The initiative is part of a Cheshire-wide solution to ensure that all personal and sensitive information is secure. It follows concerns over lost data in the public sector and, with mobile working and data transfers between organisations, the risk of theft or misplaced data has become greater.
MBC has some 227 laptops, used by councillors and staff, and these will carry McAfee Endpoint Encryption, a widely-used public and private sector solution to safeguard electronic information. The loss of the laptop would leave the machine’s data inaccessible to anyone without the de-encryption password. These passwords also regularly change.
The cost of the encryption will be £7680 for Macclesfield Borough Council.
The plans have been approved by MBC’s Community and Resources Policy Development Committee. David Naylor, Corporate Manager for Customer Services and IT (pictured), says: “We’ve also taken the opportunity to review our use of CDs and pen drives to exchange information. We’re also taking steps to encrypt our emails. The new system won’t be fully live until November 2009 but our plans will demonstrate a very high level of data security and best practice.
“Information sharing is at the heart of delivering effective public services and we are conscious that we need to demonstrate our commitment to ensuring the privacy of such information.”
