ICO report finds data breaches up in Q1

The latest report from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on the volume of data security incidents recorded in the first quarter of 2018, shows a growing problem.

An increase of 17 per cent to 957 data security incidents was recorded between January and March this year, up from 815 in the final quarter of 2017. This is the first increase in incident numbers since the final quarter of 2016.

The health care sector was the most vulnerable to breaches according to the report. The number of incidents recorded within this sector has steadily risen to 349 incidents in the first quarter of the year. The ICO claims that human error makes it easy for breaches to take place within the health care sector. In fact, the vast majority were due to errors or carelessness by humans rather than by purposeful attacks. Incidents like loss of paperwork or sending emails to the wrong recipients all contributed to the rising number of data breaches.

The researchers found that companies and employees are still unclear about what to do in the case of some data breaches. For example, a separate survey carried out by Clearswift, a data security provider, found that 45 per cent of workers had mistakenly shared personal information or other sensitive material through email. They found that only one in four knew that they should delete the email and clear the deleted items.

Dr Guy Bunker of Clearswift explained that educating staff about how to respond to data breaches is a worthwhile activity. He said: "Instilling the values of being a ‘good data citizen’ can engender a sense of data consciousness in the workplace, ensuring that employees are aware of responsible disclosure, and with whom this responsibility sits upon receiving an email in error. However, a formally agreed process or course of action is also a must. There is not a silver bullet and technology can once again offer assurances to help mitigate risks.”