ContactPoint database could put 11 million children at risk 2


Heidi Blake writes in The Daily Telegraph:

Every child in England could be at risk because of security failings in the Government’s controversial children’s database, experts have claimed.

ContactPoint is designed to help protect England’s 11 million children by giving officials a single register of their names, ages and addresses as well as details of their schools, parents and GPs.

But the database is riddled with security failings so serious that “even a child” could steal sensitive information from it, according to Overtis Systems, the data safety specialists.

The £224m system has already been delayed three times over security fears, but 800 pilot workers are currently using it and 390,000 teachers, social workers and other professionals will have access by the end of the year.

Ongoing faults mean the system is vulnerable to viruses and spyware, and users could have their sessions “hijacked” while away from their computers, Overtis Systems said.

The size of the database makes it difficult to monitor suspicious activity and it remains so easy to copy the data that a child would be capable of doing it, the data security specialists also claimed.


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