[Irish] Data Protection Commissioner | IE | Twenty-third annual report of the Data Protection Commissioner 2011 (PDF)
From ‘Data breach notifications’:
“During 2011 my Office received 1167 data security breach notifications from 186 different organisations. This is a 300% increase in the numbers reported on in 2010 when we received 410 notifications. In 2009, before the introduction of the Code of Practice, the number of breach reports received by my Office was 119. As I stated in my Annual Report in 2010, I do not see this as an actual increase in the number of breaches occurring, rather a raised awareness of the need to notify my Office of a data security breach. […] 75% of reported breaches related to errors in postal mailing […]. In most cases, the breaches involved either multiple letters in the same envelope or a page relating to another individual incorrectly attached to a letter. These data security breaches are usually explained by human error. This shows that a large number of data security breaches could be prevented by simply taking a moment to examine documents prior to posting.”
(Source: privacylives.com)