The government has restricted circulation of an auditor's report
into information security failures at the
Valuation Office Agency (VOA),
the body that assesses property values for tax purposes.
The assessment by Deloitte found that the VOA fell below the
minimum standards for securing information in all six measures of
the government's security policy framework, the minimum mandatory
measures, and ISO 27001, the industry standard for information
security compliance.
Responding to a parliamentary question from Conservative MP
Philip Dunne, Treasury minister Ian Pearson said the report had
been classified "restricted". He said redaction (censorship of
sensitive material) would render publication of the report
"meaningless".
In a
written reply, Pearson said "The Deloitte report assesses the
Valuation Office Agency's (VOA) security maturity and identifies
the areas for improvement to enable full compliance with the
Poynter review, with the HMG Security Policy Framework and Minimum
Mandatory Measures and ISO 27001."
Pearson said Deloitte had found that the Valuation Office's
arrangements for information security were deficient with respect
to leadership and governance, training, education and awareness,
information risk management, "through-life information assurance",
assured information sharing, and compliance.
According to information released by the Conservative Party, the
database held images of 1.1 milion businesses.
It also stored 834,000 digital photos of people's homes. This
included images of 777,000 conservatories, 38,000 quiet, leafy
roads and 183,000 homes with balconies. It also had 15,300 images
of roof terraces and 2,300 photos of penthouses.
Shadow local government minister, Conservative Party MP Carol
Spellman, described the database as "a burglar's charter". She said
the VOA was part of HM Revenue & Customs, the same government
agency that in 2007 lost two compact discs with the names of 8
million families who receive child benefit support.
The VOA is due to publish proposals on Wednesday that are
expected to see huge increases in the ratable value of homes,
offices and factories. This is because the valuations are based on
property values averaged over the past five years, adjusted for
improvements.
According to National Statistics, the average price of a British
house rose 183% between 2003 and December 2008 to £205,398. The
value of the average house between 1998 and 2003 was £112,095.