Data Protection Breach.

A message from the Vicar, Revd Andrew Birks.

The Diocese has been notified of a data breach that has occurred involving personal data processed by Access Personal Checking Services Ltd (APCS), acting as the data processor for those using APCS for Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) applications. In addition to many parishes across the Church of England, the breach has also affected a number of separate Dioceses and also the National Church institutions (NCIs), all of whom also use APCS.

Please note that the Church of England central systems and Diocesan Information Technology (I.T.) systems have not been hacked, nor has any of the parish systems, and those respective networks are unaffected by this data breach. This breach is only in relation to the use of APCS.

APCS has provided some details of the breach, including the nature of the incident and the types of personal data involved. We are expecting further details will be provided as the investigation progresses.

If you haven’t received an email from APCS, or the Diocese, or the Parish Safeguarding Officer, then you are unlikely to have been affected, though you should continue to check for emails from them over the coming days.

If you are concerned the Diocese have a dedicated website page which is constantly being updated with all of the latest developments, and also offers guidance on what to do if you have been told your details have been ‘hacked’. The website page can be found here….

www.elydiocese.org/parish-support/privacy-and-data-protection/data-protection-and-gdpr/apcs-data-breach.php