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Data breach: employer vicariously liable for data breach by
rogue employee
The Court of Appeal has found that supermarket chain
Morrisons was vicariously liable for the actions of a rogue
employee who, driven by a grudge against the company, took payroll
data relating to 100,000 employees and published it
online.
Mr Skelton (S), an internal auditor and employee of supermarket
chain Morrisons (M) deliberately published the personal data of
100,000 employees on a file sharing website and then anonymously
sent the data on a CD to 3 newspapers. S was subsequently convicted
for criminal misuse of the payroll data and sentenced to 8 years in
prison. As soon as M discovered the breach, it took action to take
the website down and to protect the data and any financial loss
which might result from the disclosures. Despite this, 5500
employees brought a claim
