Although the spotlight tends to fall on cyber-crime as the major cause of data breaches, old-fashioned paper and ink can still do the trick too.

The personal details of about 1 000 clients have become part of the public domain after Discovery Life included them in documents before the court.

MoneyWeb reports that a former broker left Discovery Life to join a competitive organisation. To prevent him from contacting clients, an urgent application was lodged in Johannesburg High Court, seeking to prevent this.

However, part of the application included the names, identity numbers, landline numbers, mobile numbers and e-mail addresses of about 1 000 clients.

Discovery Life has requested that the judge seal the court papers, and this process is underway.