It has recently been confirmed that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) recorded an 18% rise in personal data loss incidents in the 2019-20 period, according to figures published in their annual report.
The MoD is not the first UK government department to report alarming data-loss figures such as these; a similar report from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has recently revealed that 121,000 people were affected by breaches in the same period of time.
There were a total of 546 data breach incidents reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the 2019-20 period, including 49 cases where a “Loss of inadequately protected electronic equipment, devices or paper documents from outside secured Government premises” occurred.
Perhaps what is most alarming from this data is that the number of reported incidents has jumped to 546 from 463 within an annual period.
The data loss categories disclosed in the report are as follows:
I – Loss of inadequately protected electronic equipment, devices or paper document from secured Government premises
II – Loss of inadequately protected electronic equipment, devices or paper documents from outside secured Government premises
III – Insecure disposal of inadequately protected paper documents
IV – Unauthorised disclosure
V – Other
The report classes data loss incidents as the following: “An incident is defined as a loss, unauthorised disclosure or insecure disposal of personal data. Protected personal data is information that links an identifiable living person with information about them which, if released, could put the individual at risk of harm or distress.
“The definition includes sources of information that, because of the nature
of the individuals or the nature, source or extent of the information, is treated as protected personal data by the Department.
“Those incidents reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
are all notified via the MOD Security Incident Reporting Scheme (MSIRS).”
To read the full report, click here.