The Institute of IT Professionals says most Government departments are likely to make significant changes to their email security systems in the next few months after another breach of privacy.
An email from the Ministry of Education advising a family that their child could be enrolled at a special needs residential school was sent to the wrong person on Friday, forcing staff to apologise.
The ministry says the person who received the email has confirmed they deleted it.
Institute chief executive Paul Matthews said the breach is sloppy, but was at the minor end of the scale.
He said systems can be put in place to prevent more significant breaches, such as when details of 83,000 Canterbury claimants were sent from the Earthquake Commission.
Mr Matthews predicts government departments will adopt systems where they send links to secure networks requiring passwords, rather than sending the data attached to emails.
