Australia’s new Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme became law in Q1 of 2018. The NDB makes it compulsory for Australian organizations to alert the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) when a data breach happens. It is one part of a global tightening of data protection regulations that includes the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and the UK.

The results of the OAIC's first quarterly report highlight the major cause of data breaches: human error when sending an email. All over the world, the most common way information is leaked is via email. Sending an email to the wrong person or attaching the wrong file is something easily done.

The below infographic contains some of the key figures from the OAIC’s Q1 report. For a more in-depth analysis of the results see APAC Sales Manager Azan Iwasaki’s take here.

Strengthen your data protection strategy

Australian businesses can learn a lot from the Q1 report findings and the general increase in reported data breaches since the start of 2018. Overall, an organization that holds personal information like names, addresses, medical records or bank account details must have a way to protect against the major cause of data breaches. Changing email behavior is one part of a comprehensive data protection strategy. For more ways to strengthen your data protection strategy, download our guide 'How to lessen the impact of a data breach'.