According to official figures from the Parliament Street Think Tank, the Ministry of Justice reported 17 major data breaches during the last financial year.
It has been officially confirmed that these various data-loss incidents have affected over 121,000 people.
One of the major incidents – which was included in the Ministry of Justice’s 2019-20 annual report – was a technical error in a sub-processor which allowed various files on a training database to be briefly accessible to unauthenticated users.
Another of the major incidents included in the report occurred when prison records were wrongly dispatched, thus compromising the data of over 100 people including solicitors and Ministry of Justice Officials.
The Ministry of Justice recorded just under 6,500 data incidents over the 2019-20 period, 823 of which related to electronic devices and equipment being inadequately protected and subsequently compromised.
Tim Sadler, CEO at security software developer, Tessian, remarked: “Data security is, today, well and truly in the hands of the employees. But, sometimes, employees make mistakes – as we can see from the breaches reported by the MoJ to the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office). It’s human nature; people misplace things, we send emails containing sensitive information to the wrong person, and we click the wrong buttons. And because people are in control of more data than ever before, the risk of that data being accidentally leaked or exposed is only growing.
“As organisations expect people to be responsible for more and more sensitive data, measures must be in place to prevent the mistakes that compromise security. Failure to do so could result in regulatory fines and ruined reputations.”
To read the full Ministry of Justice report for 2019-20, click here.