A student in Greater Manchester , UK, has reportedly found a USB stick containing sensitive medical and personal details of over 340 NHS patients. Acting on curiosity, she connected the USB disk to her PC to find that the data was accessible and unencrypted.
The names, addresses, dates of birth, home and mobile phone numbers and conditions of more than 340 patients were on the device. Most of the patients listed have diabetes and were part of a trial in preparation for a scheme providing eye tests for more than 10,000 people across Greater Manchester. The data stick contained encryption software but this had not been activated, allowing anyone to access the information.
