A Freedom of Information request by infrastructure specialist Software AG reveals that more companies and government departments than ever are reporting data losses to the Information Commissioner's Office. There were 356 self-reported data losses this year - between November 2008 and September 2009. This compares to 190 incidents between October 2007 and November 2008. The biggest cause of loss, 127 incidents, were due to stolen hardware, usually laptops. Another 71 were blamed on lost hardware, typically memory sticks and 78 due to data disclosed in error - misaddressed discs or memory sticks - both of which could be easily avoided by using basic encryption and secure online delivery. Some 24 data loss incidents were blamed on couriers or the postal service.

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