Serious data breach at Angus Council releases personal information of potential Ukrainian refugees

A Scottish council has launched an investigation after it apparently leaked the personal information of incoming Ukrainian refugees and their hosts online.

Angus Council apologised for the “serious data protection breach” on Friday and said it had referred itself to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

The local authority said the data came from an online test system that somehow released information to the public through two Homes for Ukraine Facebook groups.

It’s understood the information related to Ukrainian citizens and their Angus hosts involved in the Homes for Ukraine Resettlement scheme.

The council said it “moved swiftly” to disable the link once it had been made aware of the breach but did not say how long the information was left in the public domain.

The local authority said: “It is as yet unclear how this happened and is currently part of the council’s investigation, which, if appropriate, will be reported to Police Scotland.

“The data was contained within a system, not a file, so was not available to be digitally exported, although it could potentially have been copied.

“Angus Council will be contacting those affected directly where possible to advise them of the data breach, apologise and offer support.”

Any member of the public who thinks they may have been affected by the leak is asked to contact the council by emailing resettlement@angus.gov.uk.