Seven out of every ten UK organisations have suffered at least one data breach during the past 12 months, an increase of 10% on the previous year.

That is the finding of a survey of 615 enterprises and public sector organisations commissioned by enterprise security company PGP and conducted by privacy think tank the Ponemon Institute, which also found that fewer than half of these breaches (43%) were publically announced.

The greatest number of reported incidents occurred in the public sector, with an average of 4.48 breaches per organisation, followed by the financial services sector (with 3.11 incidents).

The cost of the average data breach within the UK is £1.7 million, approximately £60 for every record compromised.

While the number of incidents may be rising, 61% of organisations said data protection was an important part of their risk management efforts.

The most influential regulations motivating this compliance were the EU’s Privacy Directive followed by PCI requirements and the UK’s data protection laws.