We focus on the latest news surrounding data breaches, leaks and hacks plus daily internet security articles.
Are we going to see a Ticketmaster GDPR fine given that at least some victims of their data breach had their information exposed after the May 2018 legislation change?
There are a few thing to look at when considering which legislation will apply; i.e. the old or the new. The breach actually spans across the deadline because some information in this breach was exposed both before and after the GDPR legislation came into force.
So, which will apply? Will the test be that the information was initially exposed before the deadline, meaning the old rules apply, or are we saying that the data being exposed after the deadline means GDPR will apply?
Was the Equifax breach – an action we are representing a group of individuals for – just the beginning in terms of cyberattacks against financial institutions?
When news broke of the Equifax breach, the world was left in shock that such a major financial institution could become a victim to what transpired to be a relatively simple attack that was entirely preventable. With almost 150 million people affected worldwide, and 700,000 of those victims here in the UK, and many not even knowing that Equifax held their data, it was the big breach of 2017; and the aftershock is still being felt to this day.
According to some recent and rather worrying research, the question as to who is responsible for data protection is that it’s a HR problem, some executives say.
According to a spread of UK executives who were asked about where the responsibilities are in terms of compromised credentials, like stolen or misused passwords, it’s a HR training issue.
It’s understood that one-fifth of respondents placed the responsibility in the hands of HR departments, with close to a thousand executives questioned. Some respondents also considered compromised credentials and weak passwords as very little risk to the business as well.
Ransomware attacks are still on the rise, and we all have every reason to be very worried about the increasing trends we’re seeing.
According to at least one piece of recent research, 2018 has already seen double the rate of ransomware attacks so far, but what’s equally as concerning is that the attacks are changing tact to go for bigger targets to demand higher ransoms, and the hackers are enjoying success.
It’s a sign of the times, and we all need to be very careful to make sure we protect ourselves from the growing risks of ransomware attacks.
There are suggestions that mobile phone data protection is lagging behind as a result of security immaturity and attitudes toward mobile safety.
The smartphone industry in particular has grown exponentially in recent years, and with more than half of the internet’s traffic thought to be on mobile devices, and with mobile apps springing up all the time, some experts are concerned at the lack of maturity mobile phone data protection has when compared to desktop protection.
Does security and attitudes need to change?
The year of 2017 saw a monumental 2.7 BILLIION data records compromised around the world as a result of data breaches and data hacks, estimates say.
This overall estimated figure of data records compromised is terrifying, with the UK reportedly in second place (behind the US) when it comes to the league table of breaches around the world.
They really are happening all the time and all over the place, and figures suggest that numbers have almost doubled in the UK from 2016 to 2017.
Recent study findings suggest that healthcare cybersecurity is still a cause for concern, with the healthcare industry itself a prime target for cybercriminals.
Underfunding and a lack of understanding by bosses means there are still huge gaps and vulnerabilities when it comes to healthcare cybersecurity, putting countless people’s private and sensitive medical data at risk of leaks and hacks.
It’s a simple case of pace: the healthcare industry doesn’t appear to be able to keep up to speed with the pace of the cybercriminals who are targeting them.
European regulators have rightly ordered big changes after the monumental Yahoo data breach that was revealed in 2016, having taken place two years earlier.
Some 500 million Yahoo user accounts were hacked, including around 39m European users; the largest ever single data breach to affect Europe. Information hacked in the Yahoo data breach included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, birth dates and passwords.
European regulators have demanded big changes be made to prevent a future incident of this size and nature ever happening again.
Cybersecurity is not a priority for most businesses in the UK, results from recent research has indicated.
Despite us being in a time where the importance of cybersecurity has never been more prevalent, businesses are still not showing the respect to cybersecurity that it deserves. In fact, recent research suggested that just 10pc of UK businesses see cybersecurity as their biggest challenge to economic success, despite 2018 being the big year of the GDPR changes.
With the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) now having the power to fine data breach offenders up to £17m, how cybersecurity is not a priority is incredibly baffling.
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