AFBI launches investigation into data breach
The Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) has said it has launched an investigation into a recent data breach.
A statement posted on the AFBI webside yesterday (Wednesday) said that in responding to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request relating to laboratory tests, information provided to the requester inadvertently included additional information including personal data.
The statement continued: “AFBI has responded to the data breach by informing data subjects, reporting the data breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and asking the requester to delete, and not to share the information any further in line with data protection and GDPR obligations.
"AFBI takes data security extremely seriously in line with our obligations under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
"An investigation, commissioned by the AFBI Board into the circumstances of the breach is underway and includes a review of systems and processes to ensure such a breach does not happen again.
"We sincerely apologise to all those affected by this breach,” the statement concluded.