AN official report into the theft of a council computer containing details of thousands of bank accounts shows more than 500 of the authority's laptops have still to be secured against hacking.
Glasgow City Council's report, which will be sent to the UK regulator for data protection, also shows one of the authority's hived-off companies was repeatedly warned about leaving doors and windows open at the City Chambers, from where a thief took two laptops.
And despite an ongoing push to have all laptops and mobile devices encrypted in line with council policy, the report shows one of the two stolen computers had only been active for a few weeks before the theft, and had not been made secure.
In all, 503 council laptops currently still need encryption, down from 927 in February.
The report adds there has been a push for greater IT security since a memory stick with details of sex offenders and victims was lost by a council worker in 2009.
The laptops were stolen from a council office three weeks ago, One contained 38,000 names and addresses plus the bank account details of more than 10,000 businesses and 6000 individuals.
Yesterday, The Herald reported that the council is likely to face a six-figure fine from the Information Commissioner's Office.
According to the internal audit report, the thief entered the building through a section being refurbished and was caught on CCTV outside the third-floor office where the laptops were stored.
One device was taken from an unlocked drawer, along with the key for the cupboard where the other was kept.
The report points the finger for security lapses at the council's arms-length construction firm, saying two City Chambers managers had "confirmed that City Building had been advised frequently that their staff were failing to close windows in the area under refurbishment" and "the managers also advised that instances of windows being left open in the evenings have been noted since the theft occurred".
Despite the hundreds of devices still not encrypted, the report says council officials were assured on May 25 that all laptops had the security.
The individuals and businesses whose information was on the laptop have been written to and details of the accounts were passed to UK Payments – the association of UK clearing banks – so a warning could be flagged up on them.
The report concludes: "A copy of this report should be provided to the Information Commissioner. Consideration should be given to commencing disciplinary procedures against the officer who stored personal data on a laptop hard-drive and failed to secure the laptop; both actions constitute a breach of the council's information security policy.
"Arrangements for the physical security of buildings, the wellbeing of staff and the security of information and data should be reviewed."
Graeme Hendry, leader of the council's SNP opposition, criticised the firm that provides IT services to the authority, Access.
He said: "That Access were issuing unencrypted laptops only a few weeks ago is mind-boggling and raises concerns about their performance. This council needs to get a grip of what is going on in Access."
A council spokesman said: "We will move quickly to implement the recommendations in this report. This should not have happened and we need to take steps to ensure it does not happen again. It is important to note that the number of unencrypted laptops was already coming down when this theft happened and that number will continue to fall."
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