IT HAS BEEN REPORTED that the number of companies fined for data breaches doubled last year as Britain’s privacy watchdog cracked down on organisations for not protecting customer information.
As many as 3bn customer records are estimated to be breached this year, according to a new report from Juniper Research.
THIS NEWS comes as Virgin Media found 9.4m Britons have been a victim of cybercrime. Egress Software Technologies said that the health sector accounted for 42pc of data breaches reported to the ICO last year – OF 2081 incidents there were 876 from health organisations.
ICO FINES
The Information Commissioner’s Office fined 35 companies almost £3.3m in 2016, up from just 18 firms the year before, according to research from PwC. The PwC research showed the UK leads in Europe regarding fines for data breaches but lags behind the US where companies were told to pay $250m last year.
As well as issuing more fines, the watchdog increased the amount of the penalties. The organisation, which can impose maximum fines of £500,000, fined TalkTalk a record £400,000 for its 2015 cyber-attack last year.
TalkTalk gets record £400,000 fine from ICO for failing to prevent October 2015 cyber attack
Within the ICO’s powers is the ability to issue enforcement notices that compel them to comply with data protection standards following a breach. It served 23 such notices in 2016, up from nine the year before.
Commissioner Elizabeth Denham has promised to impose harsher penalties on companies. The ICO will next year be granted the power to levy fines of up to 4pc of global turnover or €20m (£17.4m) when the European Commission’s data protection law comes into force.
The Office is planning to grow its staff by 40pc in the next two years to support the increased powers and growing cyber security threats.
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