OAIC informed of 110 data breaches in 2014–15

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) received 110 data breach notifications during the 2014–15 financial year, up 64% from the previous year.

The government body revealed this statistic in its latest annual report, which was published this week.

Acting Australian Information Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim said the office also handled 16,166 privacy enquiries and finalised 1976 privacy complaints during the year.

“In terms of our privacy functions, the OAIC’s focus this year was on working collaboratively with business, Australian Government agencies and consumer groups to embed the most significant reforms to the Privacy Act 1988 since its enactment,” he said.

“Throughout the year, I exercised a number of the new enforcement powers that were given to me by the privacy reforms. This included conducting privacy assessments of businesses and accepting the first enforceable undertaking made under the amended Privacy Act.”

The OAIC said it had also made strong progress resolving FOI matters, implementing a streamlined review process focused on early resolution.

During the year the office finalised 482 applications for review, 64 FOI complaints and 4384 extension of time requests and notifications, and responded to 1900 FOI-related enquiries.

The OAIC also recently launched an upgraded website with new accessibility and usability features, including new search and filter functions.

As part of the overhaul, the office has updated a range of guidance publications and updated and published new FAQs tailored for specific audiences, such as businesses, health service providers and individuals.

Finally, the OAIC is one of eight regulatory agencies to have jointly developed a new information-sharing system designed to help better coordinate international privacy protection efforts.

The OAIC, the US FTC and the OAIC’s counterparts New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK have joined the new Global Privacy Enforcement Network (GPEN).

The new system, GPEN Alert, will allow the participants to confidentially share information about investigations.

Image courtesy of g4ll4is under CC