UK Data Breach Reports Spike 1000 Percent In Five Years

The number of data breaches reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has jumped by over 1000 percent in five years, according to data released after a Freedom of Information request.

Local government data breaches increased by 1,609 percent since 2007, whilst public sector organisations rose by 1,380 percent. The private sector saw a rise of 1,159 percent.

Central government breaches were up by 132 percent, said security company Imation, which requested the information. The number of overall breaches, including those that weren’t reported, was likely to be considerably higher, said Nick Banks at Imation Mobile Security.

More than meets the eye?

“These figures from the ICO only cover self-reported data breaches, so we have to assume that the numbers of breaches in the real world are higher. Clearly it’s impossible to speculate how many breaches are missing from these numbers, but one wonders how many breaches go unreported and are therefore missing from any official figures,” Banks told TechWeekEurope.

“The flipside of this of course is that many organisations now have very robust procedures in place for reporting data breaches to the ICO, and without doubt this is one reason for the increase in breaches over the years as seen in the ICO’s figures.

“Unfortunately in the real world we see plenty of examples where organisations have failed to adequately protect their data, so this might suggest that some of them are struggling with the increasing amounts of data organisations have to deal with now.”

Another recent FOI request revealed the ICO sent out 48 percent more warnings over poor data protection practices in the past year. The privacy watchdog sent out 68 warning notices for data security lapses in the 12 months up to to 30 June 2012.

Earlier this month, Torbay Care Trust in Torquay was fined £175,000 after it accidentally published details relating to over 1000 members of staff on its website.

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