With the alarming news spreading that public sector data breaches have increased by a factor of ten over the past five years, government departments may be in dire need of skilled cyber security IT contractors.
The Information Commissioner’s Office, which recently published their newest data breach findings, indicated that the NHS has seen an increase in 935 per cent when it comes to breached confidential information. Worse yet were local government figures, which indicated an eye watering 1,609 per cent rise in data breaches over the same period of time.
The crippling influx of new instances of data breach could lead local authorities to begin calling for higher numbers of interim workers skilled in information technology and online security measures to counteract the growing problem. Umbrella service companies that specialise in providing such skilled freelancers could soon see the demand for their services go through the roof practically overnight as a result.
ICO downplayed the alarming increase by remarking that the government and health service sectors have been much more diligent in reporting serious personal or sensitive data to the office. ICO added that the guidance and practical support it has been providing to UK organisations played a large role in the increased number of reports – which begs the question as to whether or not there had always been such high data breach figures but had been going unreported up until recently!
Some analysts say that the driving force behind such high volumes of data breach may be the ubiquitous nature of mobile computing devices, such as tablets and smartphones.
