All has been quiet in the Data and Laptop Distribution Program in the UK but if you’ll turn your heads towards the Emerald Isle you’ll see that they’ve lost a laptop containing the details of 171,324 blood donors’ records and 3,294 patient blood-groups.

An employee of the New York Blood Centre was carrying the laptop around New York when he was mugged. Trust the Irish to get mugged in a city they built themselves, but we’re not here to judge.

The mugging has caused a big ruckus and people are beginning to question the data protection procedures of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service’s (IBTS). Citrix Chief Security Architect, Chris Mayers told ENN they were "not as good as they should have been".

The employee who was unlucky enough to be mugged while wandering around with 170,000 peoples’ personal details was involved in a software programme upgrade for the IBTS. Mayers pointed out that upgrades this kind can be done using "dummy information" so really there was no excuse for it at all.

The records stolen, as always, include information such as names, addresses, dates of birth, gender, blood groups and contact phone numbers of blood donors but unusually and luckily, the word encryption can be uttered in this instance, hurray!

The IBTS will of course be writing to everyone affected to let them know of the risks that come along with them losing all your personal details, identity theft and the like.

Read the full story as well as the rest of Chris Mayers’ grumblings on ENN.