London's Barnet Council has apologised to the parents of 9,000 schoolchildren after a laptop, CD, and USB sticks containing the students' personal information were stolen. The devices, which stored student names, post codes and phone numbers, among other data, were stolen during a burglary at a staff member's home. The employee has since been suspended for breaking council rules by saving the data onto memory sticks, and the council says it has disabled external storage devices to prevent unauthorised copies of data, The Register reports. In a separate incident, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has found the Warwickshire County Council in violation of the Data Protection Act following the theft of two laptops and a data stick that contained student and staff information.
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