This isn't going to shock anyone
I worked for a company that was supplying a computer system to a very large government department. To test that things were working correctly we requested to have a copy of the client data they had.
This was sent to us via email in a speadsheet.
Password protected? No.
Encrypted data? No.
Sanitised data? No.
So we reported this to our managers who:
Immediately ordered the mail to be deleted? No.
Contacted HSBC (or whatever the government department was) and told them of this breach of security? No.
Ordered us to sanitise the data before we used it? No.
So we:
Reported it to the newspapers? No.
Ethically we were all to blame.
(TitanLX, Fri 8 Jul 2011, 15:48, 6 replies)

Are you sure?
HSBC was a bank last time I checked my monthly statement...
( e.m.m.y. foxtrot uniform charlie kilo india tango, Fri 8 Jul 2011, 16:55, closed)

That's what they want you to think, man.

( drimble he'd been white, he'd been black, Fri 8 Jul 2011, 20:24, closed)

So that explains the lack of interest...

(xaer0mancer, Sat 9 Jul 2011, 14:52, closed)

I think I may know the department you mean...
...and I may work for them...
(Draco Rattus ate all the pies on, Sat 9 Jul 2011, 19:45, closed)

There's a number of things you could have done before reporting it to the papers.
Ought to have, as well.


Assuming that this would have caused some sort of public outcry had it been publicised, it would have meant nothing except - at the very best - the expectation that someone minor carry the can for what might well have been an honest mistake or an institutional failure for which no single person is culpable. And that's not on at all.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Sat 9 Jul 2011, 23:17, closed)

It was test data...
There's no point in test data not looking real, if it all looks Mickey Mouse people don't test properly.
Well that's my argument anyway and I'm standing by it
( notmyrealname, Sun 10 Jul 2011, 18:27, closed)