Wiltshire Council has paid out £19,150 in compensation to residents whose personal data was leaked from its systems since 2021.

The council recorded 73 external breaches between 2021/22, which then rose to 103 the following year.

On top of this between April 2023 and March 2024, it logged 104 external breaches. 

As a result, in 2021/22, it paid out £9,500 as well as £9,650 the next year.

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Five of the data breach incidents were related to cyber incidents. This includes one in 2021/22, another in 2022/23 and three between April 2023 and March 2024.

Councillor Ashley O’Neill, Wiltshire Council’s cabinet member for governance said: “Wiltshire Council takes its approach to cyber security and data incidents very seriously.

“Unfortunately, cyber incidents are a reality of our modern society with the ever-increasing sophistication of the attacks we are all subjected to.

“In line with national and international trends there has been a rise in attacks and incidents and the council manages these alongside other local authorities, organisations, and relevant authorities. 

“Our information governance and ICT team are dedicated to ensuring that we meet our obligations and responsibilities in keeping the personal and sensitive data of its residents and staff as safe as possible.

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“Through a combination of rigorous procedures, risk management, swift responses to incident reporting and the raising of staff awareness, we strive to ensure any impact of any cyber-attacks and data incidents is minimised as much as possible.”

The revelation comes following research by DataBreachClaims.org.uk [Data Breach Claim] which advises claimants seeking compensation for the loss of their data.

Data Breach expert at DBC, Eleanor Coleman, said: “This rise is worrying and we hope that organisations are ensuring that they have sufficient security in place to protect people’s personal information.”

According to the government's Information Commissioner's Office cyber attacks on authority system's have increased by a staggering 24 per cent between 2022 and 2023.

Personal data breaches reported by such authorities, it confirms, have shot up by 58 per cent  in the same time period.

Eleanor added: “We have noticed an increase in data breaches generally over the last year, both in terms of human error and cyber-attacks. 

“We understand that this is worrying and hope that organisations are ensuring that they have sufficient security in place to protect people’s personal information.”