On July 27, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) of Alberta released the 2022 PIPA Breach Report, providing an overview of breach reporting since mandatory requirements came into force on May 1, 2010 under the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) of Alberta.

Notably, the report outlines that the main reason for notification to affected individuals was unauthorized access to personal information primarily caused by compromised electronic information systems that stemmed from malicious software (malware) or ransomware.

The report also highlights different trends in types of breaches, their causes, timeframes, affected parties and notifications:

• Compromised electronic information systems are the top cause of breaches, followed by theft and transmission errors

• Both measure of days to discover and days to report breaches have increased overall

• Finance sector was a principal source of Real Risk of Significant Harm (RROSH) breach reporting

• Clients were most affected by a RROSH breach and contact information capped the categories of affected personal information

• Identity theft, fraud and phishing were the major types of harm resulting from breaches