Industry News Home More stories like this... RSS Feed

Patient data under internet security risk

Some NHS trusts still have data on their non-secure machines that hasn't been encrypted, it has been stated.

NHS chief executive David Nicholson, set targets to all NHS trusts that all data on non-secure machines should be encrypted by March 31st.

However, some trusts are failing to meet the targets meaning that personal data belonging to patients of each Trust could still have online security issues because of the failures in computer protection.

Reasons into why many have failed with the privacy issue could be related to the fact that the Trusts were told not to begin work until Connecting for Health (CfH), the body which co-ordinates NHS IT, acquired an encryption package, which failed to happen until March 20th.

Now it may take at least six months for each trust to complete the encryption as skilled technicians are required to fit the 700,000 McAfee SafeBoot licences purchased by the CfH.

The news comes following research from the anti-virus software manufacturer Sophos, which stated that 80 per cent of organisations had a "sloppy attitude" when dealing with internet security.

PC Tools internet security, safeguards your PC against cyber threats with proactive defence. Visit www.pctools.com to upgrade your protection