Data breaches on the rise
The insurance sector is a growing target for hackers with the number of data breaches doubling in the past year.
This is according to law firm RPC, which says the insurance sector reported 32 breaches to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in 2016/17, compared to 16 in the preceding year.
And this follows a Freedom of Information request made by Insurance Age last year that showed that the insurance sector had experienced a 317% increase in data breaches in the first six months of 2016.
These breaches included the loss of client data through cyber-attacks, with RPC finding that hackers are now paying more attention to smaller financial services firms that have substantial amounts of data but perhaps not the same levels of security.
However, these figures only account for the reported breaches. RPC believes the number will rise again when the General Data Protection Regulations come into effect in May 2018, which will stipulate companies report breaches within 72 hours.
