Partner Laura Cunningham is heading the new team, which has been introduced in response to figures showing more organisations than ever are experiencing cybersecurity breaches that put people’s personal information at risk.

Over 3,000 cyber breaches were reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in 2023, with the finance (22 per cent), retail (18 per cent) and education (11 per cent) sectors reporting the most incidents.

A recent survey carried out by the Department for Science, Technology and Innovation found that half of businesses and around a third of charities in the UK report having experienced some form of cybersecurity breach or attack in the last 12 months.

The DART consolidates Carson McDowell’s data protection expertise under one roof to support organisations with data protection, privacy and cybersecurity issues.

“Wherever an organisation may be on a data protection journey, whether that involves proactively enhancing its data protection framework or responding to a data breach, the data action response team offers tailored, swift, expert guidance to meet their needs,” the firm said.