Sweden’s government has sought urgent assurances on data security from national agencies including the health, education and pensions services after a huge leak of private and sensitive information that has cost two ministers their jobs. Amid reports by the Dagens Nyheter newspaper that confidential medical details were being handled by unscreened IT workers in Romania, the national broadcaster SVT said data outsourcing arrangements at six state agencies were being checked.

The checks follow a cabinet reshuffle last week in which interior minister Anders Ygeman and infrastructure minister Anna Johansson both stepped down after what the prime minister, Stefan Löfven, called an “extremely serious” security breach.

Several ministers had known about the breach, which followed a botched 2015 data outsourcing contract between the national transport agency and IBM Sweden, for at least 18 months but failed to inform the prime minister, media reported.The former head of the agency, Maria Ågren, was fired in January and fined after security police found she had waived security clearance requirements for foreign IT workers when signing the agreement, in breach of privacy and data protection laws.(theguardian)…[+]