The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued a warning to organisations to use alternatives to the blind carbon copy (BCC) email function when sending emails containing sensitive personal information.
This follows a number of incidents in which personal information has been shared by accident, and has come with new guidance from the ICO to help organisations understand the law and good practice around protecting personal information when sending bulk emails.
Key elements of the guidance include a need to assess the technical and organisational security measures appropriate when sending bulk emails, including whether secure methods beyond the use BCC are needed. There should also be appropriate training for staff, and if sending an email to a few people it could be done individually rather than as a bulk.
The document also provides a checklist of the steps.
Cause of harm
Mihaela Jembei, ICO director of regulatory cyber, said: "Failure to use BCC correctly in emails is one of the top data breaches reported to us every year – and these breaches can cause real harm, especially where sensitive personal information is involved.
“While BCC can be a useful function, it's not enough on its own to properly protect people's personal information. We’re asking organisations to assess the nature of the information and the potential security risks when deciding on the best method to communicate with staff or customers.
“If organisations are sending any sensitive personal information electronically, they should use alternatives to BCC, such as bulk email services, mail merge or secure data transfer services.
“This new guidance is part of our commitment to help organisations get email security right. However, where we see negligent behaviour that puts people at risk of harm, we will not hesitate to use the full suite of enforcement tools available to us.”
Recent reprimands
Earlier this month the ICO reprimanded two Northern Irish organisations for disclosing people’s information inappropriately via email; and in March it issued a reprimand to NHS Highland for a “serious breach of trust” after a data breach involving those likely to be accessing HIV services.
According to ICO data, failure to use BCC correctly is consistently within the top 10 non-cyber breaches, with nearly 1,000 reported since 2019. It said the education sector is the biggest offender for BCC breaches, with health in second, then local government, retail and the charity sector rounding out the top five.
