Financial data belonging to nearly 53mn individuals was compromised in data breaches in 2023.
Insurance group Chaucer found there was a 90 per cent increase in peoples’ financial data being involved in cyber-attacks in 2023 compared to 2022.
Ben Marsh, deputy class underwriter at Chaucer, said the sheer number of sensitive data involved in attacks was "very concerning".
Data from the Information Commissioner’s Office showed there was an increase in successful cyber-attacks against financial services providers, increasing from 259 in 2021-22 to 722 in 2022-23.
Last year, the Pensions Ombudsman notified nearly 17,500 individuals about an investigation looking into a potential data breach.
Marsh said: “A lot of organisations still do not know the true extent of what data resides on their system nor do they employ the principles of least privilege. This makes them much more vulnerable to attack.
“Often, we find that businesses are retaining sensitive data that they have no use for at all needlessly creating additional risks for them in the case of a data breach.”
Marsh warned that poor custody of personal or sensitive information could be viewed negatively by regulators, increasing the risk of class actions or fines following data breaches.
alina.khan@ft.com
