We focus on the latest news surrounding data breaches, leaks and hacks plus daily internet security articles.
Salford Royal Hospital has issued an apology to Sir Alex Ferguson over staff caught spying on his medical records when he was under their care.
We’ve written a lot about NHS staff who have accessed medical records without need or authority. It has happened so many times that the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has had to enforce multiple prosecutions, and released general warnings to staff not to abuse data they can access.
The incident involving Sir Alex Ferguson isn’t the first of its kind, nor is it the first of its kind when it comes to celebrity snooping as well.
A hefty fine has been issued over the 2016 Uber cyber attack as a result of security flaws that could have prevented the breach in the first place.
The data for some 2.7m Uber customers in the UK was compromised, as were the records for over 80,000 drivers. The fine, issued by the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office), is small in comparison to potential GDPR fines. This is because the cyber attack took place in 2016 before the new rules came into force.
Had the cyber attack have happened this year, Uber could have faced fines in the millions.
We’ve been stating that the Equifax cyber breach was entirely preventable since we launched our legal action for compensation last year.
Equifax failed to patch a known security vulnerability. On top of that, their staff failed to identify the ongoing vulnerability. To make things worse, they didn’t even spot the data being lifted for months and months.
Although we’ve known this for a while, it’s good to see the same statements from external reports. Unsurprisingly, another report has highlighted this important fact. It’s a fact that means we’re confident in securing compensation in the legal action we’ve launched.
An Amazon data breach incident took place in the lead up to the big Black Friday sales a few weeks ago.
The incident reportedly stemmed from a technical problem.
In the data protection breach, customer names and email addresses were inadvertently posted on the company’s website. They were removed upon discovery of the error, and customers affected by the data breach have been informed.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is said to be looking into the situation.
If you need legal advice about the Marriott data breach, we can help. This is another huge breach that has led to private and sensitive data being exposed.
This has to be 2018’s mega breach. Although we thought the British Airways one was the breach to set the bar, this one is obscene in terms of data breached and the timeframe. Some 500 million customers whose data was on Marriott’s Starwood reservation database has been comprised since 2014. Anyone with data on the system up until 10th September 2018 may be affected.
If you’ve received notification that you’re a victim of the data breach and you’re based in England or Wales, we can help.
There are questions that remain unanswered following the Dell data breach incident that took place last month.
It’s still not fully clear as to whether any data was taken. If it was, whose data was exposed, and how much of it was exposed? It has been suggested that all Dell customers ought to change their password just in case, and they should also remain vigilant. The data breach activity that was detected in November identified an attempt to steal customer information. All that’s known is that it’s possible some data was taken.
This was another high-profile data breach, and another where a reactive approach as opposed to a proactive approach appears to have been taken. read more
A pair or friends from Tamworth who got involved in the massive 2015 TalkTalk data hack have been jailed.
The TalkTalk data hack is a legal action we’re involved in as we fight for the rights of victims affected by the incident.
23-year-old Matthew Hanley was jailed for 12 months having admitted to hacking the website between 18th October and 22nd October 2015. He reportedly handed data over for hacking to another person, and handed financial information to 21-year-old Connor Allsopp. Allsopp was jailed for eight months and admitted to supplying stolen customer data to another person for fraud.
We’ve seen some worrying Birmingham Hospital data breach figures off the back of recent data released about NHS data incidents.
Birmingham Hospital sits at the top of the pile for 2017 data losses and thefts. According to a Freedom of Information request, some 10,000 documents went missing or were stolen in 2017 within the NHS. Over 3,000 of those were from Birmingham Hospital alone.
The figure of 10,000 missing or stolen documents is a horrendous amount. How can so many documents go missing when they’re likely to contain very sensitive and private information?
A sickening Staffordshire police data breach has led to an officer being sacked and being handed a 12-month prison sentence.
With the police handling very sensitive and personal information, we expect the best from them. Unfortunately, they do fall short on some occasions. The police have been embroiled in a number of data breach incidents for several years. A concerning element is where officers are using police data when they’re not supposed to.
This hearings in the Staffordshire police data breach at the centre of this article resulted in the instant dismissal for the officer involved.
It seems highly likely there will be some form of Facebook GDPR fine coming at some time. The recent data breaches cannot go unpunished.
As data breaches and our rights to privacy continue to grow in importance, people want to know how GDPR will be there to protect us. With the massive Facebook data breach that took place in September fresh in our minds, people want to know what kind of Facebook GDPR fine may be issued.
Facebook could find themselves as the marker in Europe for how far the new GDPR will go. Although it isn’t the first company to have been at the centre of a data breach since the rule change in May, it could be the biggest.
EasyJet admits data of nine million hacked
British Airways data breach: How to claim up to £6,000 compensation
Are you owed £5,000 for the Virgin Media data breach?
Virgin Media faces £4.5 BILLION in compensation payouts
BA customers given final deadline to claim compensation for data breach
Shoppers slam Morrisons after loyalty points stolen
Half a million customers can sue BA over huge data breach
Lawyers accuse BA of 'swerving responsibility' for data breach
The biggest data breaches of 2020
Fill out our quick call back form below and we'll contact you when you're ready to talk to us.