The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) released its most recent annual report at the end of June, which showed a continued steep rise in the number of data protection incidents. There were a total of 1954 self-reported data protection incidents in 2015/16, an increase of over 17% from the previous year. The figures are even more stark if one takes a longer time horizon: the total is more than double that for 2011-12, and nearly 25 times the figure recorded in 2007-08.
The breakdown of the types of data protection incident is also very interesting, the top causes are “loss or theft of paperwork” (18%) and “data posted/faxed to incorrect recipient”; so clearly information security is not simply an IT issue. Visit our ISO 27001 page to see how we can assist with keeping your data secure.