CORONAVIRUS - Data breach sees York council share businesses' account details

From Chloe Laversuch from the Local Democracy Reporting Unit

The City of York council has admitted a data breach after sending the account details of small businesses that applied for a grant out to other applicants.

An email seen by The Press in York says the council has reported itself to the Information Commissioner’s Office after the blunder.

The council launched a micro grant for businesses that were not eligible for support from the government scheme.

The email sent to some businesses who signed up for the scheme says:

“We need to inform you that we have made an error in the processing of your micro business grant, which has resulted in sending your account and address details to another applicant.

This did not contain any other security information and therefore we consider any risks are low.

We have contacted the recipient and asked that they delete the email and have reported our error to the Information Commissioner”

The team apologises and says the breach will not affect payment of the grant.

One small business owner said they are “very grateful” for the grant but that their bank account had been blocked after the data breach and they had to spend two hours on the phone to their bank, before making a trip to the branch to sort it out.

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