Welcome To The Data Leak Lawyers Blog

More firms fear data breaches but don’t know how to deal with them…

With the number of high-profile data breaches growing, like the Yahoo and Equifax hacks as two examples, more and more businesses are aware that they’ll probably suffer one sooner or later.

However, even though they’re aware of the risks and the possibility of an imminent attack, a lot of businesses reportedly don’t know where to start in terms of data security and how to react when a breach does happen.

This is worrying…
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West Sussex County Council apologises for data breach in inviting business owners to cybersecurity event

West Sussex County Council has apologised to numerous business owners for an ironic data breach that occurred in the process of inviting them to a cybersecurity event.

Located in Chichester, the Council sent an invite to some 200 individuals’ email addresses but used the wrong ‘blind carbon copy’ option, revealing the recipients’ email addresses to each other.

It’s a common form of breach – one that has had grave consequences in other cases, like that of the 56 Dean Street Clinic we are helping people claim for when they revealed the personal details of patients using the clinic for HIV services.
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Sex toy company Lovense “secretly recorded intimate sessions” through its vibrators

Our Data Leak Team are already representing a large group of victims of the We-Vibe data breach scandal. The trend of sex toy data breaches is alarming.

Lovense has admitted that its mobile phone app has been secretly recording audio files while its vibrators were in use.

The company has blamed a “minor software bug” for the apparently unintentional recordings.

Several users reportedly made the horrifying discovery when they spotted unusual sound files stored on their phones. As you can imagine, this is a huge cause for concern and can amount to a misuse of private information.
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2017 has seen over 7 billion records breached!

Yes, that’s billion with a B…

With the eye-watering number of records breached, the amount of breach victims out there is staggering. On top of that, the 7 billion figure is not even for the entire year; just the first three quarters!

Security firm, Risk Based Security, released a study over 3,833 publicly-disclosed breaches and found that 78.5% of the total number of records exposed stem from only five individual breaches. Big data breaches can seriously harm our commerce, and this figure is yet another reminder about the importance of cybersecurity.
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Urgent investigation launched over yet another data breach by the University of East Anglia

Only a few months ago, the University of East Anglia faced huge criticism when it accidentally sent out private and confidential information about students’ extenuating circumstances to hundreds of American Studies students.

Vowing to do better, the University gave the impression it would improve data protection procedures to ensure a similar incident wouldn’t happen again.

Sadly, it appears they have failed to uphold this, given there are now reports that sensitive information about a staff member was sent to 300 students in a second data leak. How can this have happened?
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Internet data hacking and compensation claims

The internet is a fundamental part of our lives. It connects us and provides us with access to the wealth of information this world has to offer.

However, when these figurative cyber portals are open, it’s important to realise it’s a two-way door…

With the rise of the digital age and the use of ever-advancing technology, cybercriminals have a far greater number of targets. Some criminals no longer need to plan a difficult and risky burglary to steal valuables from buildings; hackers can access bank account details for millions of people without leaving their desks!

And the problem is getting worse…
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After massive Equifax data breach, experts advise regular reviews of bank accounts

Equifax made history when it was hacked. Personal information belonging to an eye-watering 146 million people in the US, UK and Canada was at the centre of the breach.

The incident caused massive outrage as the hack was performed by exploiting a known vulnerability that Equifax failed to patch up. Affected consumers were understandably shocked and angry by the violation of their data rights, some weren’t even aware Equifax were storing their information. All the anger and disappointment aside, the breach has a real life risk to those exposed. So, what can be done to protect them?
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Three NHS employees found guilty of illegal data snooping

Despite Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) warnings, NHS employees are continuing to breach data protection laws. We again see employees being found guilty of illegally accessing medical records belonging to people they know – i.e. family, friends, neighbours and colleagues – we assume this data snooping is merely to satisfy their curiosity.

In this latest batch, three perpetrators were fined by the ICO for their clear and obvious breaches, and we are yet again left wondering what can be done to stop these continual events happening.
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The trends of council and local government breaches

Although we appreciate the hard work of those who work in our councils and local government bodies, data breaches in the public sector remain a big problem. In order to do their jobs, these establishments often need access to a lot of our personal data such as contact details, medical records, criminal records, etc.

We trust them with this information because, after all, they’re a part of the public establishment who are supposed to be there to look after our best interests. But there have been a large number of data breach cases that have left many worried about our data in their hands.
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Disqus reveals data breach from half a decade ago

Half a decade late, blog comment company Disqus has reportedly admitted a data breach that saw email addresses and passwords stolen from 17.5 million users.

Disqus, a global company that provides websites like blogs with an extension so users can leave comments on posts, was hit by hackers. The hackers reportedly managed to steal information dated back to 2007, which included usernames with associated email addresses, sign-up dates, lost login dates and hashed passwords.
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