ALCESTER and Studley residents’ email addresses were leaked in a data breach at Stratford District Council.
SDC said it became aware of the breach on Monday and immediately referred the matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office – a non-departmental public body which reports directly to the Parliament.
In a statement the council said initial investigations suggested the breach was restricted to a database of email addresses – the number of which was not specified – which had been supplied to SDC by residents.
It added the council did not believe at this stage that any further personal data was affected.
And the council also believed the breach was an isolated incident and did not reflect a general failure of internal controls.
SDC has instigated an internal investigation to determine exactly what happened and to identify the scope of the breach.
The council is also liaising with other agencies including Warwickshire Police.
SDC chief executive David Buckland added: “The privacy and security of personal information is paramount, and we are extremely concerned that such a data breach has occurred.
“We take these matters very seriously and immediately commissioned an internal investigation to understand how this happened.
“We sincerely apologise to those who may have been affected by this data breach on behalf of the council.
“We have self-reported this as a data breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office and will cooperate fully with them and or any other agency as maybe required.”
SDC said it could not comment further at this time so as not to interfere with the ongoing investigations.
