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Posted By Andrew Cartridge
We may have a situation where someone has deleted files off the network without authorisation, some of these are H&S related.
As this is outside my remit, has anybody got an opinion on what laws, if any have been broken.
A Merry Christmas to all
Andy
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Posted By Bill Bircham
Hi Andrew,
Can't think of any laws currently, but this wouldn't have anything to do with the Freedom of Information Act due to come into force on 1st Jan would it?
You don’t say what the files contained, or the motivation for deleting them, so this springs to mind. Do they happen to contain information that could be damaging to an individual or organisation? Findings of risk assessments, damming audit report, records of H&S meetings where ‘dubious’ decisions were taken?
Something for us all to think about perhaps.
Regards
Bill
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Posted By Delwynne
although not a 'legislation' it may be a breach of your company IT policy? If you don't have an IT policy this may be a good way of suggesting someone should write one?
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Posted By Gerry Knowles
Hi Andrew,
I don't know how your system is set up but!
I used to work for a company where the computer system ran an agent on a weekly basis that looked at all files held by age and then did some housekeeping. The safeguard was that the person who created the file was asked if they wanted to keep it until the next run, flag it as critical or delete it. The amount of files that had to be recovered by the IT contractor was huge
Someone may have pressed the wrong button. Of course there is always the possibility of evidence being removed by someone.
Merry Christmas
Gerry Knowles
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Posted By Nigel Hammond
This suggestion may be 'shutting the gate after the horse as bolted' in your case.
I always have this worrying doubt that files could get accidently deleted on the network.
So, I have a 512mb keyring pen-drive (Cost me about £ 45 off the web). Once a month, I copy all my files from the network to this drive and transfer it onto my home PC. This provides a backup and also means my files are readily available when I work at home. It also means I have them with me when I visit sites without having to carry a laptop!
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Posted By Gilly Margrave
Could this have anything to do with the fact that from 1st January 2005 the Freedom of Information Act means that any person can ask if your organisation holds certain information and you have to make it available to them? This includes things like e-mails or even post-it notes. There's a lot of system cleaning up going on in many organisations as a result. Deleting after 1st January would be seem as willful obstruction.
Gilly
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Posted By John Mann
Can't think of any laws that have been broken although it could be a disciplinary matter of course.
However you have been a bit silly in not backing up regularly.
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Posted By Andrew Cartridge
Dear all,
Firstly, thank you for your advice.
However, let me clarify a few things.
1. My posting has nothing to do with the 2005 FIA
2. No dubious decisions have been taken
3. We do have an IT poilcy which is currently being enforced
4. We have remote off site backup which is milestoned, to allow us to restore to a former date
It appears that the reason for the deletion is purely malicious, due to an "in house" dispute, & the individual involved will be dealt with in early 05, currently he has no network priviliges which shuould stop any recurrence.
Once again many thanks for your andvice, & a Merry Christmas to everybody.
Andy
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Posted By Karen Todd
Gross misconduct - wilful destruction of company "property"?
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Posted By Martyn Hendrie
Even if you don't have a back up when files are deleted they are not automatically removed from the computer.(The file name is altered to make it inaccessible)
If they were important enough to warrant paying an expert often files can be recovered.
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Posted By Adrian Watson
It is an offense under S3 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 (c. 18) 3.—(1) A person is guilty of an offence if—
(a) he does any act which causes an unauthorised modification of the contents of any computer; and
(b) at the time when he does the act he has the requisite intent and the requisite knowledge.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1)(b) above the requisite intent is an intent to cause a modification of the contents of any computer and by so doing—
(a) to impair the operation of any computer;
(b) to prevent or hinder access to any program or data held in any computer; or
(c) to impair the operation of any such program or the reliability of any such data.
(4) For the purposes of subsection (1)(b) above the requisite knowledge is knowledge that any modification he intends to cause is unauthorised.
Regards Adrian Watson
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Posted By Stuart Nagle
If the person had legitimate access to the system, i.e. there was nothing prevent s/he access, none.
If the system was hacked, either internally or externally the full weight of the may law apply.
Suggest your IT department get's their finger out and prevents future 'unauthorised' access and that personnell develop policies if none exist at present. If they do, perhaps they need re-visiting.
I take it the files were backed up on tape drive each day, and so can be retrieved.
Stuart
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