EQC error: info on thousands of claims leaked

WELLINGTON: The Earthquake Commission has apologised after inadvertently releasing information from thousands of claims to a customer and their lawyer.

The customer was only meant to receive their own information.

EQC chief executive Sid Miller said the privacy breach was the result of staff error.

‘‘Unfortunately, a staff member last Thursday failed to follow several key security steps, including wellestablished password protection of the documents, despite receiving the appropriate training,’’ he said.

The customer and their lawyer received information related to 8000 claims.

Despite the scale of the mistake, Mr Miller said the ‘‘most disappointing’’ aspect of the matter was the error occurred despite the fact the governmentowned insurer had ‘‘multilayered security measures to protect the information about its customers’’.

The commission moved to fix the error as soon as it became aware of it.

The lawyer involved had deleted the documents and the commission was awaiting confirmation the customer had done the same, Mr Miller said.

‘‘We are also contacting all affected customers to apologise to them and explain the steps we have taken to protect their claims information.’’

He said he felt embarrassed and frustrated because his team had worked hard to put new systems and security measures in place after a similar earlier incident.

‘‘Whilst it is difficult to protect any organisation from human error, the incident demonstrates that our systems, processes and training still require further tightening.’’

A review into the commission’s systems had begun with the support of a privacy expert.

‘‘For the past few years, we have been focused on implementing the feedback from our customers to improve our services, so this human error is a massive blow to all our staff who have been working tirelessly to regain the confidence of the New Zealand public,’’ Mr Miller said.

‘‘Despite this setback we will carry on with our goal of continuous improvement to ensure New Zealand is better prepared for the next major natural disaster.’’ — RNZ