Councils received the most monetary penalties for data security failings of any organisation last year, as self-reported breaches rose, research finds.

According to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from ViaSat UK, the total number of self-reported data breaches rose by 57.5% between February and March 2012/13 on the previous year, while the number of monetary penalties imposed on organisations for data security failings increased from nine to 20.