Kelly Fiveash reports:
BT has been cleared of a serious data protection violation by the UK’s privacy watchdog, The Register has learned.
A probe into the one-time national telco’s webmail system was carried out by the Information Commissioner’s Office after a whistleblower exposed evidence that appeared to show BT’s customer email accounts were being compromised by spammers. The probe has now been concluded, with the complaints being dismissed by the regulator.
“After considering the evidence supplied by the complainant and making follow up enquiries with BT, we are satisfied that BT did comply with the Data Protection Act in relation to its BT Mail email platform,” an ICO spokesman told El Reg.
“We also scrutinised the security testing undertaken by BT and verified the information security certification it required of its contractors. Following these enquiries, we are satisfied that BT took appropriate steps to keep customer email accounts secure.”
The conclusion of the case arguably couldn’t have come at a worse time for BT, after the company suffered yet another webmail cockup over the weekend.
Read more on The Register.