The British Pregnancy Advice Service has been fined 200,000 GBP by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) following a malicious hack and blackmailing incident. Though police recovered the data before a hacker could go through with a threat to publish the names, addresses and contact information of women who’d used the service for advice on pregnancy issues, the ICO still chose to fine the charity because it didn’t realize its website was storing the information and it further was not storing the information securely. “Ignorance is no excuse,” said Deputy ICO Commissioner and Director of Data Protection David Smith. “It is especially unforgivable when the organization is handling information as sensitive as that held by the BPAS.”
Full Story