We focus on the latest news surrounding data breaches, leaks and hacks plus daily internet security articles.
If you’ve been the victim of a Home Office data breach, we may be able to assist you with a claim for compensation on a No Win, No Fee basis.
Recent research has indicated that there has been a spike in the recording and reporting of data breaches at the Home Office since GDPR came into force last year. Whether this is down to a greater number of breaches, or just greater awareness for reporting, is unknown. But with the Home Office dealing with a wealth of personal and sensitive information, victims of a data breach need to know their rights.
You can be eligible to make a claim for data breach compensation that stems from the Home Office. Read on for a little more advice.
Telford & Wrekin Council data breaches have hit the news again, after reports of three investigations into them last year by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
We wrote about one of them last year, which was a preventable incident where a member of staff had accidentally sent the wrong information to the wrong person. Two of the three investigated by the ICO were reportedly human error data breaches, with no further action taken against them. Human error incidents can be incredibly common in local authority data breach cases.
As lawyers, it’s important to address council data breaches, because they account for a significant proportion of the individual claims we take forward.
A recent Charnwood council data breach incident has been reported to the UK’s data watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
The victims of the data breach have also been informed as to what has happened, and the local authority has apologised for the breach.
This is another case of private information being accidentally uploaded online. We represent a large number of people who are claiming for council data breach compensation because of how often incidents can happen, and accidental leaks are unfortunately common. This latest incident doesn’t come as a surprise to us, but it ought to have been prevented in the first place.
Some 5 million HMRC voice ID records are to be deleted after regulators ruled that a “significant” breach of data protection law had taken place over the use of the “my voice is my password” system.
The UK’s data watchdog, the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office), has given the government until next month to remove data collected without proper content from millions of taxpayers. Although some people have since opted in for the system, the data for those collected and retained without proper consent is to be removed.
The issue has raised concerns over the government’s own ability to adhere to important data protection laws, with the ICO critical of HMRC’s behaviour.
The Windrush data breach incident that happened on 7th April 2019 has forced changes to be adopted by the Home Office following the leak of information surrounding the compensation scheme.
Earlier this month, mass emails were sent out to people taking part in the Windrush compensation scheme, as well as other interested parties. Emails were reportedly sent out in batches of 100, and the first five batches are understood to have resulted in a data breach. Yet again, this was another case where recipients of the email could see each other’s information.
This kind of incident has happened so many times before, and it triggered one of the more severe compensation actions we’re involved ion; the 56 Dean Street Clinic leak. Changes are now set to be made.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued a fine of £400,000.00 having concluded their investigations into the significant Bounty data breach.
We’ve already been contacted for help and taken claims for data breach compensation forward on a No Win, No Fee basis since news of the fine broke in the media. As many as 14 million individuals may have had their personal data shared, including new mothers and infants by extension.
The ICO has established that Bounty failed to properly inform users that their data would be shared for marketing purposes. The findings also confirmed that no one was able to give proper and informed consent as well.
The Hollybrook Medical Centre data breach is another example of an employee (or former employee in this case) who has abused their rights of access to data.
In this case, former GP Practice Manager, Shamim Sadiq, was suspended and dismissed on unrelated matters from the Hollybrook Medical Centre in November 2017. The day after the suspension came into force, Sadiq reportedly accessed her work email account and committed a data breach by sending information to her personal email address.
The reason she was able to still access the account was because she was also employed as an advisor for the Care Quality Commission. She therefore still had access to her NHS email account.
A recent prosecution has taken place over the V12 Sports and Classics data breach incident where a former employee of the company has been found guilty of breaking the law.
In this case, the former employee (32-year-old Jayana Morgan Davies) reportedly forwarded work emails that contained the data of customers and colleagues to her personal account. She resigned from her position a few weeks later, which suggests a specific motive for the illegal processing of the data she misused.
The incident is said to have taken place in August 2017. It has led to a successful prosecution from the ICO (the Information Commissioner’s Office).
There has been a Heart of England NHS data breach incident, and it’s yet another case of an NHS employee snooping on the personal data of people they know.
We’ve spoken out about the issue of NHS employees abusing their rights to access medical data a lot recently. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) – the UK’s data watchdog – has prosecuted a number of offenders for such actions. They’ve also had to send out warnings to staff about their responsibilities and the punishments they can face when it comes to this kind of behaviour.
A large volume of the cases we represent people for are NHS data breach compensation claims, so hearing of these kinds of incidents isn’t surprising.
There has been a prosecution for a worrying Nuneaton and Bedworth Council data breach that’s an example of how employees can exploit the data they can access.
In this incident, former head of building control at the council, Kevin Bunsell, shared personal information about job applications with his partner. His partner had applied for the same job that the candidates whose data was shared had applied for, and she won the position.
Although we can only speculate as to the motives, we can assume that the reasons for sharing the data were to assist his partner in securing the position which she was eventually awarded.
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