THERE has been no shortage of publicity in the past year about the loss or leakage of supposedly private data by government departments and major businesses.

The climax probably came last October when the government announced it had lost two disks containing personal details of 25 million people.

These incidents have left public faith in the ability of departments to keep such information secure at an all-time low.

And they are only part of the problem that the public sector seems to have with large scale IT projects.

Now fears have been raised by auditors over "significant system security issues" and "major risks" with software used by Lancashire County Council to store its social services files.

Council officers have insisted no data has been lost and say they are taking steps to improve the security of the system by identifying any possible risks and suggesting improvements.

The sensitivity of social services files is too obvious to need to spell out.

The worry is that with the national spotlight already on computer security, there should not have been any need for auditors to point out these potential problems.

They must be sorted quickly.