Theft of adoption data laptop ‘has a silver lining’

THE theft of a laptop containing sensitive information about children being fostered or adopted should lead to a tightening of security, a senior Edinburgh city councillor claimed today.

The unencrypted computer was stolen from the home of a member of an adoption panel. Police do not believe it was taken because of the information on it and say they are following “a positive line of inquiry”.

Tory children and families spokesman Cameron Rose said: “I think this may have a silver lining. It will become part of the process of tightening up security on IT, not just in the council, where I think we have reasonable security for our laptops, but in partner organisations and people we work with.”

One foster parent told the Evening News yesterday: “The council got in touch and said the minutes of dozens of meetings were contained on a laptop which had been stolen, and there may have been a data protection leak. From what we understood, there could have been several years’ worth.

“We got the impression that they were supposed to be very hot on confidentiality. You can’t discuss certain things with your neighbours, so it’s somewhat ironic that this has happened at their end.”