Heathrow Airport Fined For Data Security Breach

The operator of London’s Heathrow Airport has been fined GBP£120,000 USD$156,500 by a UK data privacy regulator for failing to ensure that personal data held on its network was properly secured. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) fine was for a 2017 incident when an employee of Heathrow Airport lost a USB memory stick that was subsequently found by a member of the public.The stick held 76 folders with over 1,000 files, some of which contained personal information including names, dates of birth and passport numbers of a number of airport employees. The data was neither encrypted nor password protected, the ICO said.