City councils unsure if sensitive data is encrypted

Only one out of every 10 city councils in the UK is sure that sensitive data held on staff laptops is encrypted.

According to a study of 40 out of the 49 city councils in the country, carried out by systems integrator Telindus, the other 90 percent could not say for sure that all sensitive data held on staff laptops is encrypted.

Half of the councils in the study have responded to the recent high-profile data leaks by upgrading security policies to make sure their data is suitably protected.

However, 43 percent said they still have no plans to upgrade data-protection policies, and are instead relying on password protection and staff diligence to keep sensitive data safe.

In September, silicon.com calculated that the public sector has lost records on a total of 29 million people in the past 12 months.