From today, a spiteful data breach can be punished, a law that emerged with the announcement by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in January to impose a penalty of over £500,000 for breaching the Data Protection Act.

The new penalties, are revealed to be in action on April 6, are a result of the stringency introduced in the data security rules following several serious breaches in which private information was copied to discs or left on laptops on commuter trains.

However, majority of these security breaches are witnessed coming from the government departments, but, business owners are being cautioned that they will also be under the watchful eye of the law.

"Organizations can no longer ignore the seriousness of corporate data breaches and not complying with the Data Protection Act. The loss of personal data or any data that organizations deem invaluable is unacceptable mainly because it is all preventable," posted former Information Commissioner Richard Thomas.

Over a period of February 2007 to 28 July 2009, the ICO is revealed to have brought 53 public enforcement actions linked to data security breaches.