The Information Commissioner’s Office has attempted to dismiss fears that data breaches are on the increase – despite news that they have soared by 1000% in the past 5 years – by claiming they simply reflect increased awareness of the need to report a data loss.
Speaking to the technology press, deputy information commissioner David Smith maintained that, while he does not dispute the accuracy of figures, he is unsure they “reflect the position” of serious data leaks.
His comments are in response to the Freedom of Information request – published in August – which revealed the private sector has recorded a hike of 1,159% in data breaches since 2007. It also has the largest number of any sector, with 277 cases in 2011.
Smith said: “It’s not that those figures aren’t reliable, but I’m not sure they really reflect the position. I don’t think you can necessarily say that the fact we’ve got more reports means there are more breaches. It’s just that awareness of the need to report it [has increased].”
Smith, who was speaking at Gartner’s 13th Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit in London yesterday, said that the power granted to the ICO in 2010 to allow it to impose fines on organisations that allowed data to be leaked provided “more of an incentive to report now than there was”.
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