Ireland second in Europe for data breach notifications

Over 6,700 data breaches notified to Irish Data Protection Commission in last 12 months

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Ireland reported 6,700 breaches to the Irish Data Protection Commission in the last twelve months alone, making it second in Europe for notifications per capita.

DLA Piper’s latest GDPR Data Breach Survey weighted the results against a country’s population. In Ireland, 132.52 breaches were reported per 100,000 people. Still, the Data Protection Commission is yet to levy any fines for breach regulation.

Overall, The Netherlands was home to the highest number of breach notifications with 147.2 reported per 100,000 people. On the other end of the spectrum, Italy, Romania and Greece reported the fewest number of breaches per capita.

Since GDPR came into force in May 2018, 160,000 data breach notifications have been reported and fines of €102 million have been imposed. France, Germany and Austria imposed the largest fines, racking up over €51 million, €24.5 million and €18 million respectively.

Notifications are on the rise. In the first eight months of GDPR, an average of 247 breach notifications occurred each day. That figure has seen a 12.6% increase, 278 per day.

“It is no surprise to see Ireland — a strategic global hub for data-rich businesses across many sectors — once again ranked highly on number of breach notifications,” said John Magee, intellectual property & technology partner, DLA Piper Ireland. “The total amount of fines of €102.5 million imposed to date is relatively low compared with the potential maximum fines that can be imposed under GDPR, indicating that we are still in the early days of enforcement.”

“The early GDPR fines raise many questions,” said Patrick Van Eecke, chair of DLA Piper’s international data protection practice. “Ask two different regulators how GDPR fines should be calculated and you will get two different answers. We are years away from having legal certainty on this crucial question, but one thing is for certain, we can expect to see many more fines and appeals over the coming years.” 

TechCentral Reporters

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