The partially-owned television network of BBC, UKTV, has discharged on of its executives. The TV's personnel was said to offer the network a huge amount of confidential broadcasting data that was stolen from the media regulator, Ofcom.
UKTV was offered a six years' worth of revenue and spending data from its rival stations. This will allow the network to gain vital insights regarding the programming budget and income streams of other broadcasters.
The disclosure was immediately reported to Ofcom by UKTV. This eventually led to a panic by its rival broadcasters. The information that includes transmission and revenue returns was said to be stolen from the regulators market intelligence database which is considered to be closely guarded as per the Telegraph.
As reported by The Guardian, the spokesperson of UKTV said that when their senior management was aware of the situation they immediately contacted Ofcom and returned the full information. They said that they acted quickly to ensure that the information will not be used by anyone in their company and it was immediately deleted from their system.
Ofcom on the other hand has already written to various television companies and insist that the data has been recovered and the 27-year old employee who was working for the regulator for a short period of tome has been dismissed by UKTV.
According to Computer Weekly, Ofcom reiterated that the protection of data is very important to them. They are very disappointed with how the former employee acted. They added that the extent of the disclosure has been limited and contained.
James Thickett, Ofcom's director of market development assured other broadcasters that the data that was stolen was not used in any form, has been removed from the system of UKTV and is no longer in their possession.
He added that it has been clear from their investigation that the personnel involved in the incident acted in contrast to Ofcom's security policy and information security policy. UKTV already refused to give a comment on the matter.
