Greenwich Council has faced 22 data breaches in the last five years - including two in the past three months.

A question on the issue will be raised at next week's meeting of the council's cabinet by opposition leader Cllr Matt Hartley who has raised concerns.

It comes after a report published by privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch highlighted the breaches.

Speaking to News Shopper, Cllr Harley said: "The fact that there have been 22 data breaches at Greenwich Council in the last five years, and two breaches in 2018 already, should be a concern to us all.

"The council deals with a wide range of complex and very personal data on residents.

"We are told most of these breaches have been down to human error - but with security threats to organisations increasing all the time, the council needs to make sure data security is a top priority."

Councillor Maureen, O’Mara, cabinet member for customer services and anti-fraud, said in addition to the two data breaches already this year, there were nine in both 2016 and 2017 - one of which resulted in lost data.

She said: "No actual data was observed to have been breached to a malicious third-party actor as a result of a cyber-security attack.

"It should be noted that almost all of these data breaches were the result of human error rather than a malicious actor or non-compliance with corporate policies."

Privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch published a report last month revealing that there are at least 37 attempted breaches of UK local authorities every minute.

Jennifer Krueckeberg, lead researcher at Big Brother Watch, said: “With councils hit by over 19 million cyber attacks every year, one would assume that they would be doing their utmost to protect citizens’ sensitive information.

"We are shocked to discover that the majority of councils’ data breaches go unreported and that staff often lack basic training in cyber security.

"Local authorities need to take urgent action and make sure they fulfil their responsibilities to protect citizens."

Cllr O'Mara said recommendations in the Big Brother Watch report had been taken on board, and that concerns were being addressed.

She said: "The council is prioritising cyber security as a new maturity area within the ICT service and it is on the corporate risk register. The acquisition of additional resources has been allocated to help keep the council’s infrastructure and data secure.

"Cyber security awareness is now being promoted, both with members and officers. Cyber security training will be rolled up in with information governance training to ensure that all users receive a baseline level of training.

"Guidance has already been issued to members and officers on how to handle suspicious emails.

"A new reporting process and policy is being defined as part of the effort to ensure GDPR compliance; this is an evolving piece of work but will ensure consistency in reporting and escalation paths when dealing with potential cyber security incidents."

Greenwich Council receives 93 "suspicious emails" every hour of every day - and firewalls catch 9,000 attempted attacks a month.

The meeting of the council's cabinet to discuss the report will be held next Wednesday, March 21.