After a week of raising awareness of the risk of identity fraud – in the name of National Identity Fraud Prevention Week – it is both shocking and disappointing to hear of the latest data breach to occur at the Ministry of Defence.

“We are doing all we can to inform the public and businesses of the steps they should be taking to protect themselves,” said Tyron Hill, Fellowes, a founding partner of National Identity Fraud Prevention Week, “but until the organisations with which we all deal with buck up their ideas and start behaving responsibly we are, unfortunately, going to remain at risk. Research commissioned by Fellowes for this year’s campaign showed public confidence to be at an all-time low, with 97 per cent of British consumers claiming to have lost faith in the organisations holding their personal information. This latest breach, unfortunately, justifies their feelings – even I’m starting to wonder, what on earth will happen next?”

“All organisations – be they public or private, large or small – must put stringent, water-tight ID fraud prevention policies in place. And thorough training must be made mandatory to ensure that all staff, no matter how junior or senior, understand the steps they should be taking to prevent the fraudulent treatment of their business’, colleagues’ or customers’ identities – and that the understand the consequences of failing to adhere to such guidelines.”

National Identity Fraud Prevention Week is an annual awareness campaign – which this year is running from 6 th – 12 th October and is as such currently underway. The campaign is fronted by the BBC’s Adrian Chiles and is backed by public and private sector organisations, including the UK’s credit reference agencies, the Federation of Small Businesses, the British Retail Consortium, Fellowes, Royal Mail, the Metropolitan Police, the Association of Chief Police Officers, and the Serious Organised Crime Agency.