Interactive Chart: Data Breaches Across the Federal Government

TLA recently made and inquiry into the number of data breaches across the federal government reported to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC). The number of breaches has changed since the last time a request was made so we have updated our chart with an interactive chart.

The number of breaches have been increasing every year since 2009 but as the OPC pointed out it is unclear if the increase is due to diligent reporting or an actual increase in incidents. Up until last year reporting data breaches was voluntary for the federal public sector.

In May 2014, Treasury Board Secretariat issued a new directive to federal departments and agencies making it mandatory to report “material” breaches to our office and to Treasury Board.

– Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada