Last year, the ICO called for "stronger powers, resources and sanctions" to curb data breaches after a damning report into data protection revealed that 277 data breaches had been reported in the 12 months to October 2008, including 80 in the private sector.

It is understood that the proposal to increase the ICO's powers comes in response to increasing pressure from the European Commission for the UK to tighten up its enforcement of EU data privacy laws.

This has led to an amendment to the Data Protection Act 1988 granting the ICO new powers to impose fines of up to £500,000 on any organisation seen to be neglecting its responsibilities under the Data Protection Act.

James Lewis, managing director of secure file transfer specialist Pro2col, claimed that transactional and direct mail printers would be most at risk of fines under the ICO's new powers, which are due to be passed in April 2010.

"Any print company that processes, stores or transmits personal, individually identifiable data needs to ensure this data is sufficiently protected," he said.

"Print companies most likely to fall under this umbrella include security and variable data printers, who are handling either sensitive financial or personal data."

According to Lewis, any printer handling sensitive data should be using an end-to-end file transfer system that secures data throughout the entire file sending process, as well as providing auditing and tracking facilities to provide accountability in the event of a breach.

"All data should be encrypted while at rest, as well as during the file transfer process," he added. "In the event of a breach, any information leaked will be indecipherable."

Likewise, any sensitive data being stored on behalf of a customer for a future job must be encrypted.

Read associate editor Jo Francis's blog: Data security not just for specialists