North Wales Police recorded 14 cases of unauthorised access to the police intelligence record along with nine cases of accidental disclosure of personal information, and one case of accidental disclosure of data.
For the average user at least, the dangers of losing data through accidental deletion, hardware failure or even malware attack malware that deletes user data is quite rare nowadays far outweighs the dangers posed by hacker attack.
Under European regulations, the maximum fine for an accidental violation is 150, 000 euros - but data protection supervisor Johannes Caspar called for that amount to be increased in future.