26 million GP records may have been breached

Medical records contain a wealth of information on patients, and any leak or breach of medical information is a serious one.

Scarily, an investigation has been launched into the security of a computer system that holds 26 million patients’ records. The investigation, launched by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), is looking at whether the computer system complies with the data protection act.

If it wasn’t, who knows how bad this breach could be?
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Customers of “pay day loan firm” Wonga victims of serious data breach

UPDATE: PLEASE NOTE THAT WE ARE NO LONGER ABLE TO ACCEPT NEW CASES IN THIS MATTER.

For help and advice for other data breach cases and matters, please contact the team here now.

Around 270,000 customers of “pay day loan firm” Wonga have had their personal information accessed after hackers broke in to the loan company’s customer database.

The company said they’re looking into the incident and are “urgently investigating illegal and unauthorised access to the personal data of some of its customers in the UK and Poland”.

With data like bank details and other personal information accessed, customers may now be at serious risk of financial losses, as well as further breaches and serious distress.
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Parliament Scandal – data breach affects thousands of MPs’ employees

Of all people to accidentally publish personal details, you wouldn’t have thought it’d be an independent watchdog…

Following news reports form the BBC, the expenses watchdog has been left red-faced and has issued an apology for their disastrous error where approximately 3,000 MPs’ employees and their salaries were mistakenly published.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) was created by Parliament in 2009 to independently oversee and regulate MPs’ business costs and expenses, and in this instance, they have found themselves at the centre of a scandal themselves.
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We-Vibe data surveillance breaches the Data Protection Act

We have been approached by a number of concerned individuals in the U.K. following the news that the company behind the “smart sex toy” We-Vibe is settling Group Action claims in the U.S. for collecting user data without proper consent.

We have now taken on a multitude of cases as we investigate the circumstances surrounding the collection of data without the consent of users here in the U.K., which we allege is a breach of the Data Protection Act.

The Canadian manufacturer of We-Vibe, Standard Innovation, was fined CAD $4 million (£2.4 million) after they were found to be collating and using their customers’ data without explicit consent.
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IoT (Internet of Things) devices still vulnerable to cyber-attacks

Over the years, technology has been expanding and digital devices are on the upward trend. The idea of connecting a device to every aspect of the home or office for instance has been appealing to many.

Technology enthusiasts have coined the name Internet of Things (IoT) for these kinds of devices which are connected to the internet allowing them to correspond with each other… An example of this would be telling your device to switch the light on or off.
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“Honesty is the best policy” – Consumers appreciate companies’ transparency in the event of a breach

A new report from NTT Security shows that transparency and honesty are what consumers most desire in the event of a breach.

However this is not new news. This has been the general consensus for many years following the sharp rise in data breaches in recent years. People are keen to know if their data has been compromised, and people deserve to know so they can assess what they may need to do.
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“The NHS’ data protection obligation” – former NHS employee’s data breach shows the importance of the NHS’ duty to protect our data

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has prosecuted and fined a former NHS employee, Kayleigh Evans, for the unlawful access of personal information. The fine imposed amounted to more than £1,000.

The former employee of the Solent NHS Trust accessed sensitive medical records of a former girlfriend of her partner without need or proper authority. The ICO’s investigation concluded that Ms Evans accessed the medical records over a ten month period without consent.
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“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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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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Are consumers seeing data breaches as the new norm?

Thanks to the ever-growing rise in technological devices, we’re in an era where we are all at a huge risk of data breaches.

We’re more connected to our smart devices than ever before, with millions of us relying on the security of our information being a given. But as more of our information is going online, the risk of data breaches is increasing, and leaks, breaches, and hacks are becoming commonplace.
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