Brussels (Brussels Morning) – Belgian police reported 40 data breaches in 2023, double the previous year. The Supervisory Body for Police Information highlighted constraints due to budget cuts, impacting its ability to address complex issues.
The number of data breaches documented by Belgian police services to their data protection office increased to 40 last year, almost double the 25 cases registered in 2022.
What is the role of the COC in data protection?
The Supervisory Body for Police Information (COC) is the data protection regime for Belgium’s police service and has issued the figures this week, noting that the number of reported data violations is the highest recorded since the COC started operating in 2018.
Examples of data breaches the reports could apply include hacking, ransomware, loss of a device or paper documents, emails transmitted to the wrong recipient or containing attachments that should not be there, targeted phishing, unauthorised issuance of content, online disclosure of personal or non-public data, unauthorised access or compromised passwords.
What challenges does the COC face in addressing breaches?
The COC emphasised in its 2023 activity report that the constraints of its small office are “not tenable” given the volume and complexity of the issues it is dealing with. The authority stated that it is the smallest supervisory authority within security and policing, with 7 to 8 full-time staff last year, and is trying to maintain pace with increasingly complex regulations and effects in artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, as well as its growing caseload.
In particular, the COC stated that as it has only one full-time IT specialist, it does not have sufficient ability to thoroughly examine infringements.
How do budget cuts affect the COC’s operations?
The COC blamed budget cuts which saw its funding allocation decline from €1.816 million to €1.6 million this year, noting that the actual amount was already “insufficient to cover actual expenditure”.
While the authority stated that in general Belgium is doing very well compared to other EU nations in terms of monitoring data processed by police, current activity and expertise within the police force about data protection remains “inadequate”.
Elsewhere in the report, the COC stated that it received 549 indirect data access demands from citizens last year, a fourfold increase compared to 2018. The average processing period for these decisions was 46 days, and more than one in five (22%) of files processed last year resulted in the total or partial archiving, rectification or erasure of police data in the National General Database (BNG).
