Welcome To The Data Leak Lawyers Blog
We focus on the latest news surrounding data breaches, leaks and hacks plus daily internet security articles.
We focus on the latest news surrounding data breaches, leaks and hacks plus daily internet security articles.
Facebook user records exposed again! In yet another data breach that’s hit the social media giants, data for millions of users has been found on a publicly-accessible Amazon server.
This is one in a growing line of recent Facebook data breach incidents that has plagued the tech giants in recent years. This appears to be another case of third-party developers being responsible for the incident as well. It’s understood that the leaks involve Cultura Colectiva, a media firm, and an app named At The Pool.
Some of the data that has been exposed in this leak is worrying. It’s yet another warning about the dangers of sharing Facebook account information via apps and plugins. Facebook themselves cannot avoid responsibility for these incidents either.
Last month, apologies and testimonies took place in relation to the massive Marriott cyber attack that saw some 500 million people’s records exposed.
Marriott International Inc.’s Chief executive, Arne Sorenson, reportedly appeared before a U.S. Senate committee to testify. As part of a written testimony, an apology was issued, although the company is said to have declined to comment on the developments.
There are stark differences between how the U.S. deal with companies in the wake of huge data breaches and how the U.K. deals with them. Although we have the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) who can issue fines in the millions under GDPR, the government rarely gets involved in the same way the U.S. does. However, victims in the U.K. can still be eligible to claim data breach compensation. This is important to remember.
The social media giant hasn’t had it easy lately, with a number of data breach incidents plaguing their public image. The recent revelations about the Facebook password data protection flaws is another headache to add to the pile.
It’s understood that some Facebook passwords have not been securely stored and have been accessible to thousands of Facebook employees. You would expect that one of the biggest social media platforms in the world would have the best protection for passwords, but this story suggests otherwise.
Users affected by the issue are set to be contacted by Facebook. This incident is one in a long line of recent data scandals Facebook has been embroiled in.
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).
It’s understood that a Bromford data breach incident occurred last year after the housing association accidentally sent letters to the old addresses for hundreds of tenants.
News of the breach comes from the media outlet Inside Housing. The error appears to be linked to some form of system issue where the old addresses for some tenants was copied into a new system. Some 30,000 letters were then sent to tenants in relation to rent reviews, and it’s believed that 253 of them were sent to the wrong (old) address.
After concerned tenants contacted the company about issues receiving their letters, the mistake was discovered. By then, the damage had already been done.
There’s been an avoidable Rotherham Council data leak, the likes of which is not an uncommon type of data incident, particularly for a local authority.
Almost 900 people are reportedly affected by the leak, with victims calling the incident “extremely serious” and worrying about the possibilities of falling victim to crime.
One of the most common types of legal cases we run are claims for council data breach compensation. In fact, a huge proportion of the individual cases we’re fighting for justice in involve local authority services. This incident, unfortunately, is unsurprising to hear about.
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.
An issue that has led to a number of NHS fax data breach incidents has been reported, after mix-ups with a similar fax number has led to information going astray.
NHS data breach compensation cases are some of the more common types of claims our expert team help people with. A lot of the data breaches are caused by such simple errors that can be easily avoided. Despite this, they happen way too frequently.
The news of the fax mix ups is another example of this and comes to light after the accidental recipients of the data contacted NHS England about the incidents.
The NHS fax data breach issue reportedly stems from GP surgeries and pharmacies accidentally sending data to the wrong number. The number they have been sending information to in some cases belongs to a hotel group who has then been receiving the faxes incorrectly.
Some of the data that has been sent to the wrong fax number includes medication requests, certificates and dispensing vouchers.
It’s understood that the fax number for the hotel group is similar to the ones used to send information within the healthcare system. The hotel group has notified the Corporate Information Governance Team for NHS England.
As a result of these NHS fax data breach issues, NHS England has reportedly reminded GP surgeries and pharmacies about the importance of checking numbers. As some have recently called for a move away from faxes and pagers within the NHS, it’s claimed that this fax system is apparently the only way of sending this data within the healthcare system.
It sounds like something needs to change.
Any medical data breach can cause a huge amount of distress to the victims. When we see these simple errors over incredibly personal and sensitive data, it’s clear to us that more needs to be done.
As a firm of lawyers who specialise in data leak cases, we know how bad a breach can be for the victim. It’s important for these simple and avoidable data breaches are stamped out.
The Coffee Meets Bagel data breach was unfortunately revealed on Valentine’s Day. I.e. a dating app revealed a breach on the day of love and romance…
With the data breach reportedly having happened on 11th February 2019, I suppose its just a case of bad timing that notifications ended up being on Valentine’s Day. Either way, the American-based dating service that is used in the UK has suffered a breach.
This isn’t the first dating website that has been targeted for a data breach. We doubt it will be the last as well.
There’s been another huge security incident announced. This time it’s the 500px data breach that may have affected all 15 million of its worldwide users.
The Canada-based online photography networking platform (that also has an app) is understood to have identified security issue last year. However, it’s taken some six months for the organisation to discover that they’ve been breached.
The length of time that’s passed is particularly worrying. It means that victims of the 500px data breach may have already been targeted by criminals. Victims may have had no idea that their data had been exposed given that news of the breach has only just hit the headlines.
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