If a professional working with your child had their work laptop and phone stolen

[Hiredandsqueak]

Would you expect to have been informed of this considering the information held is sensitive? This isn't a service I pay for it is commissioned by the Local Authority and I found out from another parent on Facebook who had been told the theft was the reason the report she needed was late. It happened the beginning of August so not like there hasn't been the opportunity to contact me either. Just checking that I have good reason to be annoyed really before I contact them.

Can the sensitive information be accessed without authorisation? So even if the lap top was stolen it's highly unlikely anything sensitive has been revealed unless it was targeted by someone who knew what they were doing. All our work laptops are encrypted and can only be accessed via a secure login. Maybe save the anger until you find out if there has been a data breach or just an extension in time lines

Do you mean you think there has been a data protection breach? If so then there are protocols for notification to affected data subjects based on the assessed risk, and you should look up the policy of the relevant organisation and the ICO website.

But a theft of a device does not mean there has necessarily been a breach. My work laptop and phone have no client information stored on them whatsoever. All data is in a secure hosted system which is accessed remotely.

I work within social services so handle a lot of sensitive information. If my laptop were to be stolen it would be useless to the thief because it is encrypted and can be wiped remotely. We would only tell a family about the theft if there was a risk their information had been compromised.

I have no idea because they haven't actually paid me the courtesy of telling me the phone and laptop have been stolen. If I had been told and reassured then I think it would have been better than finding out second hand IYSWIM.

I’d expect to be informed of a data breach, but it’s not a given that that has happened.

If the laptop and phone are encrypted, they’ll be secure so no information can be accessed.

My work laptop and phone are both encrypted. I have to entire three unique passwords on each to get access to anything. If one password is entered incorrectly 3 times, the whole thing resets and defaults to factory settings. Plus, my database is accessed via cloud anyway, so information doesn’t sit on a physical drive on the laptop.

If there is no risk then they are under no obligation (legal or moral) to tell you anything.

CleverQuacks that's reassuring then hopefully the system is the same and that's the reason I haven't been told.

I will wait and speak face to face when I next see them hopefully they can reassure me there is nothing to worry about. Thanks everyone.

they haven't actually paid me the courtesy of telling me the phone and laptop have been stolen

But why would they tell you? If there was a data breach, you’d need to be informed but it sounds like this hasn’t happened (I assume because the equipment is encrypted).

They probably have data of thousands of people. They can’t contact each one to say “a laptop was stolen but nobody could ever access your information so there’s nothing to see here”.

TheCats no I see that now after reading other replies. Just a worry when you don't know what might be accessed though. Still think it's pretty stupid to leave such items unattended in a car though.

Just because a laptop has been stolen doesn't mean there's been a data breach. LA laptops are encrypted, there shouldn't be any personal data kept on the laptop itself, that's the first hurdle for thieves, secondly, the personal data would be stored externally and could only accessed via a VPN which a thief is not going to be able to replicate without access to the authenticator, even if the phone is the authenticator it's extremely unlikely it'll be able to be gotten into. They will be investigating and if a breach has occurred and it is significantly severe they will contact data subjects.

Still think it's pretty stupid to leave such items unattended in a car though

Sadly, sometimes this is unavoidable. My work laptop often has to stay in the boot of my car if I feel it’s safer there than bringing it with me. For example, if I’m bringing my laptop home but going to the supermarket first, it’s better to leave it looked in the boot than to bring it into the shop.

I’ve got sensitive data on my laptop and if it’s stolen it can be remotely wiped.

I wouldn’t expect all 19000 of my customers would need to be told.

It’s not always massively practical to take a laptop everywhere (supermarket/gym/collecting kids from groups etc) and if the data can’t be accessed then it’s just a hardware risk and frankly that’s up to the owner of the hardware to decide whether they’re happy to take the risk or not

& as everyone has said, no data breach, no need to be informed.