On 27 August 2019, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) released its latest quarterly report into the Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) regime with national figures confirming that one in three breaches last quarter were caused by compromised credentials (passwords).
The Report comes as new research suggests the annual cost of worldwide data breaches will exceed $5 trillion by 2024 [1]. The whitepaper, released by UK research body Juniper Research, suggests the increase will “primarily be driven by increasing fines for data breaches as regulation tightens”, with the majority of breaches expected to target small to medium sized enterprises who lack the financial capacity to adequately invest in cyber protection.
What is causing the breaches?
The Report covers the 1 April to 30 June 2019 reporting period, during which there were 245 breach notifications made, a 14 per cent increase on the previous quarter. Consistent with past reports, the results indicate that human error continues to be a key contributor to eligible data breaches, with simple mistakes such as sending information to the wrong recipient or the loss or accidental publication of…
