back to article UK.gov coughed over £2 MEELLION in data breach fines in the past year

The total number of self-reported* data breaches in the UK increased from 730 between March 2011 and February 2012 to 1,150 in a similar period in the year up to early March 2013. The lion's share of the fines paid out originated from the public sector. A Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Information Commissioner’s …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ahem

    Sir we have two options for our data security, the expensive option which keeps to standards, or the cheaper option that is fairly suspect and covers our ass about as much as a leaf.

    "Well, we can't afford teh good option due to cutbacks, so go fo rthe cheap one"

    *several months pass*

    You're being fined for failing to protect the data.

    "But now we've got even less funding! Crap how are we gonna survive now."

    sirt we have a new system set up, but we need to work out the data protection, we can either do it the right way which is expensive, or the shoddy way which is cheap

    "Well thanks to the cutbacks and fines we can't afford to do this right, cheap and shoddy it is!"

    And so the cycle continues.

  2. bencurthoys

    When the government pays fines, who does it pay them to?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Left Pocket, meet Right Pocket.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Maybe its like the good 'ole days in the internet...

      I'll give you a million pounds of advertising for your site if you give me a million pounds of advertising on my site.

  3. Neil Lewis
    FAIL

    Government fining itself?

    Oh really.

    1 The government only has money it gets from us.

    2 The people signing the cheques to pay the fines aren't paying with their own money, but with ours.

    3 No-one in government ever takes any personal responsibility for anything.

    Hence the government fining itself for breaching it's own rules is meaningless. No-one gives a toss. At least in a private company, someone will possibly get fired for causing the problem. Though they're probably a scapegoat, sacrificed to protect the arse of an executive's who really caused the problem.

    1. Justicesays
      Devil

      Re: Government fining itself?

      Its a good excuse to increase local taxes or cut funding to local services though, while the "fines"go back into the big pool of cash that can be spent on buying a politicians mates wind turbines or whatever.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Apropos of nothing why did the company make an FOI request for this information when it is already publicly available on the ICO website (although good luck finding it on the abomination that is their new website)

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