Firms blamed for most data losses

Firms blamed for most data lossesThe largest investigation ever undertaken into privacy breaches in Europe has dismissed the threat posed by hackers, claiming the vast majority are the result of company cock-ups.
The report, released by Central European University’s Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS), shows that 89% of the breaches are the fault of companies, rather than public sector organisations
The study looked at 350 incidents over a 10-year period, with an emphasis on the 229 incidents that directly involved the privacy of people living in Europe.
The total population of the countries covered in this study is 524 million, and the total population of internet users in these countries is 409 million. Expressed in ratios, this means that for every 100 people in the study countries, 43 personal records have been compromised. For every 100 internet users in the study countries, 56 records have been compromised.
Meanwhile 24% of the Europe-specific breaches occured in the UK, and for every 100 people living in the UK, 200 personal records have been compromised.
“In the news we hear a lot of news stories about hackers who break into systems and steal our personal information. But that was the minority of incidents – far and away, most of the cases organisational errors, insider abuse, or other internal mismanagement,” said Philip Howard, CEU Professor of Global Media and Communication and director of CMDS.
Howard is now calling for mandatory reporting of breaches. He said: “When personal records are compromised, both companies and government offices should be required to report the possible privacy breaches both to the victims and a privacy commissioner. Most people don’t know who has legitimate access to their personal records, and they deserve to know when those records have been compromised.”

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2 Comments on "Firms blamed for most data losses"

  1. Firms – not hackers – blamed for most data losses http://t.co/BUFmm54v9z #dataprotection #dataprivacy #data #directmarketing

  2. Firms blamed for most data losses – DecisionMarketing http://t.co/Qk9EIyzfOy

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