The ICO has released a report on Q4 2023 data breach trends. In terms of overall numbers, there was an increase of 22% in incidents reported when compared with Q4 of 2022.
The majority of the breaches were non cyber incidents, although there was a 170% increase in ransomware, making it the third most common incident type in 2023.
Data emailed to the wrong recipient was the most common incident overall.
Interestingly, the report details the factors that could influence whether an incident will result in a potential investigation. These are:
- Number of data subjects affected
- Time taken to report
- The type of data involved in the breach
The sharp increase in ransomware incidents should be a wake-up call for those who are not yet on top of cyber security. As for misdirected emails, this is a perennial issue, but there are steps that can be taken to reduce the risk. If you would like to discuss this, please get in touch here.
The full report can be found here.
