Heathrow Airport fined £120,000 for lost USB stick

The BBC is reporting that a lost USB stick containing personal information cost Heathrow Airport £120,000 in ICO fines

It comes after a staff member lost a USB stick last October containing “sensitive personal data”, which was later found by a member of the public…

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said the memory stick, which contained 76 folders and more than 1,000 files, was not encrypted or password-protected.

It said only a small amount of files contained “sensitive” information, including a training video that exposed the names, dates of birth and passport numbers of 10 people. Personal data of up to 50 Heathrow aviation security personnel was also revealed…

Steve Eckersley, ICO director of investigations, said: “Data protection should have been high on Heathrow’s agenda. But our investigation found a catalogue of shortcomings in corporate standards, training and vision that indicated otherwise.”…

The ICO added that only 2% of the airport’s 6,500-strong workforce had been trained in data protection…