28th  November 2022

As National Computer Security Day approaches on 30th November, latest ICO data reveals that 37% of businesses are at risk of huge data breach fines since the GDPR update.

Leading UK data breach solicitors, Hayes Connor, have uncovered the industries most affected by data breaches. This comes after analysing the ICO’s ongoing data security report.

The findings revealed that over 1 in 3 data breaches across all sectors are said to have been reported after 72 hours.

Part of the 2018 GDPR regulations require businesses to report a data breach within 72 hours. Failure to do so can result in a significant fine of up to £8.7m or 2 per cent of your global turnover. So, 37% of business are putting themselves at risk of large fines.

The study also revealed some other shocking stats, including:

• There has been a total of 32,541 data breaches reported to the ICO since 2019.
• 80% of data breaches were non-cyber related, suggesting a lack of GDPR training or awareness within businesses.
• 1 in 5 data breaches since 2019 were in the health sector.

Christine Sabino, Legal Director at Hayes Connor, said, “What’s concerning is the public puts a lot of trust in industries such as the health, government, and education sectors, with the expectation that their data is going to be handled securely. With so many of these data breaches being caused by human error, it’s very clear that these industries are in dire need of data handling training, at the very least.”

The full stats, alongside some more detailed observations and conclusions, can be found here.

Please also find a link to our press release with some of the main statistics and takeaways from the data, here.