19 million Canadians are estimated to have been affected by data breaches between late 2018 and 2019, slightly more than half the population of the country.
The news was released by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada after the passage of the Personal Information and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Data breach reports have nearly sextupled since PIPEDA went into effect, with 446 incidents between November 2018 and June 2019.
One notable exception to the PIPEDA reporting requirements is Canadian political parties, which are not required to report data breaches, and often compile large amounts of data on voters.
Hacking or “internal bad actors” account for the majority of the data breaches reported, with unintentional data leaks and the loss or theft of equipment comprising the bulk of the remainder.
Read more here.
