Welcome To The Data Leak Lawyers Blog

“SMEs reportedly not prepared for cyber-attacks” – More and more SMEs are subject to cyber-attacks and are worryingly not prepared for them

Amongst all the ‘high-profile’ data breaches like Yahoo and TalkTalk, there isn’t a lot of media coverage surrounding small-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and the data breaches they’re guilty of.

However, SMEs should remain vigilant as there is a rise in cyber-hacks in recent years, with cyber-criminals targeting small businesses just as much as the larger ones.

The legislation affects us all, so no one can hide from it – no matter your size!
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Huge hack affects thousands of NHS staff

Thousands of NHS staff in Wales have had their private information stolen after hackers accessed their details through an IT contractor’s server.

The private information included:

• Full names;
• Dates of Birth;
• National Insurance Numbers;
• Radiation doses.

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The most worrying web leak of 2017: Cloudflare’s #CloudBleed

Google’s Project Zero team detected a huge data leak on Friday 24 February which may persuade you to change all your passwords.

According to Cloudflare’s incident report, a bug exposed private session keys and other sensitive data of 2 million sites on the Cloudflare network.

Once again – no one is safe!
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Millions of WhatsApp and Telegram users exposed to ransom hacks

WhatsApp and Telegram are the latest victims to third party data hacking which saw millions of users vulnerable to having their accounts taken over and held to ransom.

Hackers utilised a weakness in images being sent through the messaging apps to hide malware that could eventually take over accounts.

Once again – no one is safe!!!
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Hundreds of NHS patients may have suffered serious harm from 500,000 data breaches

Although we value and treasure our National Health Service – who for the most part do a wonderful job of looking after us – they are responsible for significant amounts of data breaches. In fact, they’re way ahead when compared to everyone else, and it’s a real issue because the information they secure for us is often very sensitive and personal.

Unfortunately, we have to report yet another serious data breach story involving the NHS.

It has been revealed that the NHS has lost more than 500,000 pieces of patient information between 2011 and 2016. This may have led to hundreds of NHS patients suffering serious harm as a result.
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Trio of data thieves have been prosecuted and fined over £400,000

A gang of three data thieves were charged and prosecuted by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) earlier this year for unlawfully obtaining personal data at their employment, and then selling it onto claim management companies.

Andrew Minty, Jamie Leong and Michelle Craddock – all employees of Enterprise-Rent-A-Car – conspired to steal customer information so they could sell on the personal information to third party claims management companies. They sold the information on the basis that the claims management company would then use the personal data and information to make nuisance calls to the individuals.
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GoldenEye malware – the “new ransomware” security threat!

Malware and ransomware has been on a sharp rise in recent years, with security researchers saying that cyberthieves are adopting them in “alarming” numbers.

The rise in these types of cyber-attacks are usually money driven.

Malware is a software that’s installed covertly onto the user’s computers and disrupts the system to allows the cyber-hacker unauthorised access to it.

There’s a ‘new’ malware on the horizon… and it’s not from an unknown territory.
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Rise of the fake news and its implications from a data perspective

“Banksy’s identity revealed!”

“Facebook now requires a monthly user fee.”

“Bath salts create zombies.”

Chances are, you’ve probably seen these ‘news’ headlines all over social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. These shocking revelations prompted millions of social media users to click on the links to find out more, and then they were sharing the links to warn friends and family.

However, these incredible and shocking ‘news’ articles were produced for that exact effect; rather than the production of real journalism. And it can cause problems for those who open links and share them.
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18.6 million documents leaked in the football industry

Data leaks have been on an upward trend in recent years. In what’s been described as an ‘Edward Snowden-type of leak’, the professional football industry became one of the latest victims of a data leak at the end of last year.

And with it being the football industry, it’s understandably big news, and has caused quite a stir!
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British Heart Foundation fined for secretly screening donor’s information for targeting most generous

The British Heart Foundation Charity secretly screened thousands of their donors to target the most generous ones for further donations. As a result of their behaviour, they have been given a monetary fine by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Although the first thing that springs to mind is the fact that we’re talking about a charity here, we must always remember that no one is above the law – a fact that the ICO had to recognise when investigating their behaviour.
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