The personal details of 50,000 visa applicants were on
view to visitors to a website run by theForeign and Commonwealth Office,
theInformation
Commissioner's Officehas found.
The Information Commissioner's Office today found the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office in breach of the Data Protection Act
following an investigation into a security breach on the online
application facility for UK visas.
The breach on the UK visas website allowed visitors to the site
to see personal data of people applying for entry visas to the UK.
A
tip-off from Channel 4 alerted the Information Commissioner's
Office in May. It launched an immediate investigation into the
site, which is run jointly by the Home Office and Foreign and
Commonwealth Office Directorate responsible for visa
processing.
"The FCO cooperated fully with the ICO during the course of the
investigation and provided the ICO with an independent report into
the breach," the Information Commissioner's Office said in a
statement. An Information Commissioner's Office spokesman said it
had also used a report commissioned by the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office from an independent investigator in its own
investigation.
At the request of the Information Commissioner's Office, the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office has signed
a
formal undertaking to comply with the principles of the Data
Protection Act. "Failure to meet the terms of the undertaking is
likely to lead to further enforcement action by the ICO," the
Information Commissioner's Office said.