The recent spate of high profile cases have made data security, unfortunately, one of the issues of the year. What has become apparent is that the topic cuts across both public and private organisations and the solution to these breaches is not purely electronic and cannot be resolved by the flick of a switch.
Is this is all media hype – a storm in a tea cup? After all, how many of these lost records have actually been used – or abused? Well, the UK’s fraud prevention agency, CIFAS, has highlighted worrying trends in financial crime arising from identity theft. Between January and June 2008, cases of fraudsters using stolen data to takeover individuals’ bank accounts increased by 157 per cent. For organised crime, cybercrime is their fastest growing revenue stream.
Given that the cost of identify theft falls on individuals rather than companies, why should company directors care about data protection now? After all, the Data Protection Act has been in place in some form since the early 1980s and few companies have suffered penalties for non-compliance. Indeed, many commentators have criticised the UK data regime as toothless.
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