People remain the weak link in any security system. A new investigation has shown that the vast majority of security incidents can be traced back to the personnel. In the case of a self-reported data breach, the chance is seven times greater that the leak is due to human error than that a hacker was responsible.
The security firm Kroll reports this on the basis of data from the Information Commissioners Office (ICO). According to the data, last year there were a total of 3,156 self-reported data breaches in the United Kingdom. That’s 28% more than the year before. But it is striking that of those incidents, 2,124 could be traced back to human error or incompetent employees.
Wrong address
There is a good chance that most of the self-reported data breaches are the result of employees who have a better understanding of what a leak means. This, combined with the introduction of the European Privacy Act (GDPR), has focused attention on data concerns. Companies are now also required to report data leaks. It was therefore already expected that there would be a growth in the number of reported incidents.
According to Kroll, health care is the most affected sector. There were 1,214 incidents there last year. General businesses are in second place with 362 incidents, education and youth care with 354 incidents in third place and municipalities and other local authorities with 328 reports in fourth place.
The most common mistake is that people send data to the wrong person via e-mail. This has happened 477 times. Data can sometimes be sent by post to the wrong person (441 times). The loss of paperwork accounted for a total of 438 incidents.
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.
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