Thread by @Richy_GITC

I'm organising addressing @NewcastleCC about the reprehensible decision to allow the entire Council Tax department to work remotely and process every taxpayers private data in staff's unsecured and unsupervised homes. This has happened with no public consultation #Newcastle

Currently they are trying to get me to accept a written statement that will not be a matter of public record. Not a chance. I will address the council publicly in the chamber. Every resident's personal information is currently at risk and they aren't even aware

Pandemic or not, we have been forced to accept an unacceptable risk to our private and financial data that no amount of keylogging or firewalls can prevent. The main flaw in any and all data security is the human element. Unsupervised staff can and do steal and sell data.

It's not always phishing scams and hackers that get your info. When I worked for a major telecommunications company in the 2000s staff members were caught writing down people's credit and debit card information to use fraudulently.

This is why work from home is not appropriate, nor suitable, when personal and financial information is to be accessed by staff as part of their job. Our data is precious and it's theft can devastate lives.

Yeah it's great to work from home in your pj's, but it's inappropriate and downright reckless when that work involves accessing personal and financial information of either customers or citizens. We don't know if unauthorised people are in homes, or if the staff can be trusted.

It only takes one untrustworthy person to take advantage of the lack of supervision and hundreds of thousands of residents data can be stolen and sold to criminals and fraudsters.

Do you feel safe #NewcastleUponTyne? I don't.