Avoid being charged in the first place...

[dave]

However IT staff of necessity need to perform system testing, and have carte blanche to browse copies of live accounts, 18 million of them at a time.

 

Which in itself would be a breach of the DPA. Testing with LIVE data is specifically mentioned in the act.

[Mistermind]

To be strictly precise, the names of account holders will be randomised on the test copy of recent live file to protect confidentiality. But the randomising formula is hardly GCHQ standard. It is not realistic to randomise the numeric amounts or account numbers as that would upset the entire applecart.

 

IT have no alternative but to perform system testing as close to Production conditions as possible using high-volume data of maximum complexity and variety. A half-hearted dress rehearsal will not expose surprises which could turn out disastrous upon go-live. A trade-off between 2 dangers.

[dave]

You are correct, however the DPA distinctly mentions the problem and clearly states that LIVE data may not be used for testing.

[Mistermind]

Live datasets, in practice more likely 1 to 7 days old, are available for IT to browse and determine the cause of urgent problems. In practice a subset of such data reduced in volume to save time , with names randomised, would be fed into system testing to simulate live running as near as possible. IT staff are aware they are given unique privileges out of inescapable necessity. They would not dream of divulging account details, and are aware that abuse of privilege is a sacking offence.

 

This would be comparable to war games using live ammunition, without which simulation value would be greatly reduced. As such data is

 

already out-of-date,

has been deliberately modified to protect confidentiality,

and only a subset is used,

 

then such data would not fully qualify would it, as "live" data?

This hole is deep enough now, so I shall stop digging.

[bram stoker]

This topic was closed on 10 March 2019.

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