Welcome To The Data Leak Lawyers Blog

Is council data protection and cybersecurity quality a postcode lottery?

Experts have looked in to the differences between councils and local authority services and compared the quality of the cybersecurity and their data protection procedures and protocols. One worrying trend is the fact that there are some huge differences between different councils when it comes to practically all aspects of data security.

This issue means that, in reality, the quality of data protection and cybersecurity can be somewhat of a postcode lottery. There is no single or uniform approach, which is a really worrying aspect.
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Equifax data breach compensation success

It’s pleasing to see that some consumers have already had their cases heard and have been able to receive successful verdicts against the credit-referencing agency at the heart of last year’s huge data protection scandal.

Although Equifax reportedly turned up to court with some very expensive lawyers, a group of claimants managed to convince a judge that they had a case to answer for. This has all happened in America, where cases can often get to a trial much faster than they can here in the UK, but the news can be seen as potentially good news here as well.
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Researchers say catastrophic data breach is inevitable by 2021

According to researchers at the Raytheon and the Ponemon Institute, a staggering 80% of IT and cybersecurity experts believe we may be headed for a data breach of “catastrophic” proportions in the next few years.

The combination of more and more devices connected to the internet, together with the increasing risk of cyberattacks, as well as the growing sophistication of the attacks we’re seeing, is allowing cyber-hackers the perfect platform to do some real damage.

On top of this, with organisations still not taking their cybersecurity responsibilities seriously enough, unless things change, we could be headed for disaster very soon.
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Travel site Orbitz hit by probable cyber-attack: 880k credit card data at risk

There’s been yet another major data protection breach, this time involving Obitz – a subsidiary of Expedia Inc – who say that the data of some 880,000 accounts may have been compromised in a cyber-hack.

Earlier this month, travel site Orbitz determined that an attacker may have accessed data stored on a computer system used by consumers, and accessed a separate tool used by businesses. It’s believed that data submitted in 2016 was exposed, but the discovery of the breach only happened in March this year, meaning data may have been exposed for a prolonged period of time
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Fallout from the Equifax data protection breach lingers on as executive charged for selling shares prior to breach disclosure

If Equifax thought that news coverage of their huge data protection breach from last year was going away, they’re wrong.

We’re acting for a number of victims in the Equifax data breach after their servers were hacked into because they failed to update a known security soft spot, and detect the ongoing vulnerability. As a result of their clear failure to keep their systems updated, we consider there is a case for compensation.

Now, news of an Equifax executive being charged with “insider trading” has further fuelled the anger against the credit-monitoring giant whose servers were hacked last year.
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Trusted Quid data breach – some 66,000 payday loan customers hit by breach

We have already been contacted by people affected by the Trusted Quid data protection breach, and our Data Leak Lawyers have agreed to investigate cases.

As many as 66,000 customers of payday loan firm Trusted Cash, trading as Trusted Quid, may have had their data stolen due to an unauthorised access of their website. Customers affected by the breach are now at a greater risk of becoming a victim of fraud as key information was stolen in the breach.

Because of the nature of the data compromised in the cyberattack, this is a very serious data protection breach indeed.

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Councils ‘unprepared’ for cyber-attacks

According to information from a report by privacy advocates Big Brother Watch, despite assurances that local government authorities are taking data protection seriously, more than a quarter of UK councils have had systems breached in the last five years.

The report also found that the majority of the successful breaches were caused by the simple and well-known phishing method, pointing to staff as the “weakest link” in terms of cybersecurity and data defence.

The report also references the fact that three-quarters of councils reportedly do not provide mandatory cyber-security training, with 16% not providing any at all.
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Tesco Travel Money data protection breach advice

Back in 2016, the cybersecurity of Tesco Bank was rigorously questioned, when hackers were able to gain access to 9,000 customers’ accounts and steal £2,500,000.

Tesco also suffered a further breach last week were they reportedly cancelled a number of credit cards over a ‘third-party compromise’.

There has now been another breach where it’s estimated 17,000 Tesco Travel Money customers are subject to this new and massive data protection breach which happened through Travelex – a company that runs services on behalf of Tesco.

Names and payment information are amongst the data that has reportedly been compromised
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NHS Healthcare systems most vulnerable to data protection breaches caused by hackers

A recent study concluded that, in January, almost 40% of data protection breaches in a particular healthcare sector were caused by hacking.

Although the figures are from one study, and the results are relevant for the area of the study, the risk of NHS Trusts, doctors and hospitals falling victim to a hack is a serious and ongoing concern.

The 2017 “WannaCry” cyber-hack that specifically targeted older and more outdated systems hit the NHS hard. In fact, the UK faced a practical crisis in the immediate fallout of the hack.
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Leicester City Council accidentally send spreadsheet to taxi firms containing details of vulnerable adults and children

Leicester City Council accidentally sent an unsecured spreadsheet to 27 taxi firms that reportedly contained sensitive details of potentially thousands of vulnerable adults and children.

The error occurred as the local government authority were processing tenders for transport of people in care and people with special needs.

Although a recall email was sent, there is no telling just how far the data may have inadvertently spread.
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