Welcome To The Data Leak Lawyers Blog

Hacked webcam live streams 8 year old girl’s bedroom online

A mother in Houston, Texas, was unaware that the private webcam in her two eight year old daughter’s room, that was intended to keep an eye on the girls, had been hacked.

Live footage of the two girls was being streamed online for anyone to view.

The live stream had been online for thousands to view since July. It was only when another mother came across the feed and created a Facebook group for Houston mothers with screen shots of the girl’s bedroom online in order to find the mother.
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Brits not happy about companies using healthcare data

A large number of people are uncomfortable that commercial bodies are able to access their anonymised healthcare records, surveys have found.

Health charity the Wellcome Trust surveyed 2,000 participants and found that the majority (53%) of people were happy to have their data used by commercial organisations, but only for research. 60% would rather commercial research organisations had access to their health data so that society do not miss out on the benefits the company could produce.

However, there was a minority of people (17%) that completely objected to private companies having any access to their health data, which raised the suggestion that an opt-out option should be available for anyone who does not want their health data shared.

Only a quarter supported sharing anonymised health data with insurance companies in order to get better insurance prices, and 37% supporting it being shared for marketing health products.
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Sage Software firm suffers data breach

UK software company Sage has suffered a data breach which could have affected the personal information of employees at 280 businesses.

The breach is being investigated by the police, and Sage is looking into the unauthorised access of data where someone used an “internal” company computer login for access. It is unclear whether the information was stolen or simply looked at, but the incident allegedly took place nevertheless.
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Should banks spy on our monthly income?

A Competition Watchdog has announced earlier this month that banks should share customer’s data in order help them find the best deal.

This has caused concern for privacy campaigners as our financial data is already widely shared, stored, and available anyway through various public and private bodies.

Most consumers think credit reference agencies only collect and collate data about our repayments and loans – but companies are instead cashing in on our data and selling it on, which can include all our transactions; every last one! Even something as small as paying a friend back for a meal!
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Volkswagen vulnerable to key hacking

As if Volkswagen haven’t already been in hot water enough because of the emissions scandal, it has now been discovered that millions of Volkswagen vehicles are reportedly prone to theft by hacking.

This is because the keyless entry system can reportedly be hacked, with vehicles that have been sold since 1995 being at risk.
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Healthcare industry at the heart of most data breaches

Healthcare data breaches are the most common – which is unfortunate because of the sensitivity of the information that can often be leaked or hacked.

The NHS has a wealth of information about us. Due to how much information they have on us, data breaches by the NHS can be a major concern. One of the most frustrating things about NHS data leaks is that we are required to share so much of our personal information with them.

Unlike businesses, we arguably have more of an option to how much information we choose to share with them, when it comes to sharing information with the NHS, it’s more out of necessity – we share some of our most personal information with the healthcare industry.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) did a report on data security, and their findings highlighted just how frequent healthcare industry data breaches takes place.
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How vulnerable are Smart City transport systems to being hacked?

American photojournalist Lori Nichols was driving down the highway near Atlantic City close to midnight when she snapped a picture of a free standing temporary road sign. On the lit up road sign, instead of the normal “work ahead” or “slow down”, the sign instead read the word “poop”.

The sign had been like that for several hours. When she reported it to the police station in the morning, she was told other people had also called it in.

While the pranksters only wrote “poop” on the sign, it does raise the question as to how easy it was to gain access to an unlocked panel at the back of the sign. Instead of writing what they did, they could have written something that could have created an entirely different scenario. Something warning of a serious incident, or perhaps a threat that could have sparked a very different response…
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Health apps – could your data be breached?

Apps are being created all the time that allow people to monitor their health and fitness. By monitoring our health, it allows people to have a greater control on their life.

But are we exposing ourselves to data breaches when using these apps? How secure is our data really?
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South Central Ambulance Service staff data breach in 2013

If you have yet to claim as a victim of this breach, time is running out – contact us now!

The personal data of thousands of ambulance service staff was accidentally published online back in 2013, which was one of the worst breaches of its time.

South Central Ambulance Service published the age, sexuality, and religion of almost 30,000 ambulance staff members – a serious breach of data protection regulations.

The Information Commissioner’s Office investigated the claim once it was revealed by a BBC Radio Berkshire Freedom of Information request to the service.

2,826 staff members who were employed by the organisation that covers Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and Berkshire in October 2013.
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Looking Back: Islington Council resident data breach October 2015

Last year, Islington Council accidentally published residents personal details on their public website.

This lead to Town hall bosses having to apologise yet again over another data breach on the back of three previous ones in recent years that cost the taxpayer £100,000.

The council received a phone call from a resident who had discovered the data breach after going online to pay a penalty charge only to notice copies of the residents information had been uploaded onto the council website.
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