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“The Northamptonshire PCC data breach” – Adam Simmonds is charged for disclosing confidential information

A former Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), Adam Simmonds, is charged and due to be on trial next year for breaching data protection provisions.

Mr Simmonds is accused of unlawfully disclosing information about a Wellingborough MP, Peter Bone, during his time in office from 2012 to 2016. There’s little clarification as to what information was disclosed, but the documents were classified as confidential, according to reports.
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ICO fines two employees for a data breach when they used personal data wrongfully

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has prosecuted two employees, Lesley Severs and Kayleigh Billington, who worked at a claims management company. They both had access to data that was reportedly illegally obtained from another company, to go on to use the personal data to make calls to insurers.

The personal data in question included information about policy holders and their recent or historic road traffic accidents. The personal data would’ve no doubt included names, addresses, vehicle identification numbers, dates of birth, and so on.
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“Three are losing customer trust” – Three mobile customers aren’t happy following the data breach

Following on from Three’s data breach, Three’s mobile customers aren’t happy… me included.

Three has had a lot of difficulty in ascertaining the exact amount of customers that were affected by the recent data breach. They’ve confirmed that hundreds of thousands out of their ten million customers could be affected though, so we’re talking big numbers here.
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“Adobe’s $1 million fine” – Adobe Systems has been fined for the security breach in 2013

Adobe Systems has now been fined $1 million for the data breach that occurred in 2013.

Initially, it was believed that 38 million accounts were breached, but the total was then decreased to around half a million.

That’s still a heck of a lot of breaches though!
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Tesco Bank criticised for its “lax” security system

Following what was dubbed as the largest cyber-attack in U.K. banking history, Tesco Bank has a lot to answer for in terms of the ‘suspicious activity’ of 40,000 bank accounts, which led to thousands being successfully hacked, and money going missing.

What originally was thought to be a hack into 20,000 customer accounts was revised down to 9,000, in which £2.5 million was stolen.
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Broxtowe Borough Council’s Data Breach

Nottinghamshire Police is investigating a data breach after reports that confidential information was accidentally sent via email to all 730 employees at Broxtowe Borough Council (BCC). The contents of the email made allegations against someone’’ conduct at BCC, which is easily arguable as a private and personal matter,

This could constitute as a serious breach of the Data Protection Act.
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“Three Mobile security wake-up call” – Three’s data breach will potentially affect six million customers

Three’s CEO, David Dyson, has admitted that there has been a massive security breach, potentially affecting around six of their nine million mobile phone customers.

As a Three customer myself, I was mortified to hear of the news. Without delay, I changed my password… not that I think this would make a huge difference since the damage has already been done.
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17-year-old was reportedly “just showing off” to friends when he hacked TalkTalk!

TalkTalk’s data breach has cost them a total of 42 million pounds so far – and it’s all because a teenager was trying to show off to his mates…

At 17 years of age, you’re expected to go out with friends, go shopping, do some homework, etc ; all the usual stuff…

But not the 17-year-old who successfully hacked telecoms giant TalkTalk…

The minor, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was charged for the TalkTalk hacking in October 2015, which has led to hundreds of thousands of people being at risk of further fraud from criminals.
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“Former NHS employee breaches data protection” – The ICO has fined a former employee around £1,300

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) prosecuted and fined a former NHS employee, Beverley Wooltorton, for the unlawful access of personal information.

The fine imposed amounted to around £1,300 under section 55 of the Data Protection Act (DPA), where it’s unlawful for individuals to obtain personal data ‘knowingly’ (in this case) or ‘recklessly’ without the consent of the data controller, as well as accessing the information for personal reasons.
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“Netflix’s precautionary measure” – Netflix urges users to change passwords to enhance data protection

Netflix users are being urged to change their passwords following a data hack from another company. This may be a precautionary measure though, and it started when Netflix found some users were using the same passwords across accounts.

This concern was further cemented with the confirmation of another company’s data being hacked and leaked. The leaked data flags up warning signs that Netflix users who are using the same passwords across accounts may have their data breached in a sort of domino effect.
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