Over 350 data breaches reported last year

gallery

UK businesses reported 356 data breaches in the last year to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

The statistics, obtained by Software AG using a Freedom of Information request, show that UK businesses reported 71 lost memory sticks or discs and 127 stolen laptops and other devices.

There were also 24 cases of data lost by courier services, and 78 incidents where data was “disclosed in error”.

“The chronic problem of data loss should be in decline, and not increasing as these figures seem to indicate,” said Tim Holyoake, lead technologist at Software AG, in a statement, noting the same time period last year saw just 190 such breaches reported, while the year directly after the HMRC breach saw 277 reported.

As there is no data breach notification law in the UK, it might also be the case that more businesses are reporting such incidents to the ICO. The data watchdog only advises contacting it to report a data breach if many people are affected or it could have serious consequences.

Click here to find out what to do in case of a data breach.

Email to a friend

Print this page