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NHS admin worker guilty of illegally accessing sensitive medical records of friends and family

The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has given a former NHS administrator a fine for illegally accessing sensitive medical records of people they know.

Whilst working at the Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, the former admin worker took advantage of their position and searched for medial information on their friends and family without their consent. The former admin worker pleaded guilty to breaching s55 of the Data Protection Act. The ICO consequently issued a fine and have also ordered them to pay costs and a victim surcharge.
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ICO issues fine for historical society who had a laptop containing donor information stolen

The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has reported that a historical society has breached data protection laws when one of its work laptops were stolen.

An employee was using it away from the workplace and had set it down in an undisclosed location when a break-in occurred, and the laptop – among other things – was stolen. The laptop, purchased by the historical society, contained sensitive personal information of artefact donors.

The ICO did not further explain exactly what information this included.
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Multinational hotel chain hit by data breach: credit and debit data stolen!

A couple of days after Christmas, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) admitted that a number of their 5,000 hotels around the globe had been affected by a data breach.

It was reported that debit and credit information may have been stolen.

Some customers who visited those affected hotels have already reported fraudulent transactions on their bank accounts. Unfortunately, this New Year might not be the fresh start many were hoping for.
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“Spam marketing has landed Nouveau Finance a £70,000 fine” – Companies who use personal data for spam purposes remain in the ICO’s firing line

Aren’t marketing text messages one of the most irritating things?

Well, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has thankfully penalised a company for abusing text marketing powers. The issue with this batch of marketing messages is that it was done using personal information for marketing purposes without proper consent, and therefore constituted as a breach of the law.
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“Unsolicited marketing calls have landed a legal firm a £30,000 fine” – Assist Law Ltd used private information solely to make unsolicited marketing calls

Assist Law Limited has been hit with a monetary penalty from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for making unsolicited marketing phone calls to people who were registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).

The Weston Super Mare legal firm felt the force of the ICO who imposed the monetary penalty for making the phone calls for marketing purposes over a period of a year.
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“Millions of car dealership information spread on the web” – DealerBuilt’s “shoddy” system has reportedly caused a massive data breach

While data breaches are at an all-time high in the U.K., the U.S. are facing the same security crisis with huge data breaches happening all the time as well. A recent report showed that customers’ personal details from hundreds of car dealerships were put at risk due to an inadequate database.

DealerBuilt is a specialised Dealer Management System (DMS) which allows dealers to manage every aspect of a dealership, and they boast a “secure integration”, which is somewhat ironic given the breach…
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1.2 million KFC customers warned of data breach

Well-known fast food restaurant chain, KFC, has warned all 1.2 million of its loyalty card customers their details may have been breached after their website had been attacked in a cyber hack.

The fast food chain’s Head of IT, Brad Scheiner, issued the warning saying that “only around 30 members were targeted”.
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The largest cybercriminal network this decade, Avalanche, has now been dismantled

After eight years of its existence, Avalanche Botnet has now been dismantled in a 4-year-long international operation.

On 30 November, German prosecutors and police – working hand in hand with the Department of Justice and the FBI in the U.S., the EU’s law enforcement agency and other global partners – managed to disembody the international criminal network involved in phishing attacks, bank fraud, and ransomware for years around the world.
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Cyber-attackers may leak data instead of just encrypting it!

There is a new threat of cybersecurity on the horizon, as cyber-attackers aren’t just encrypting data for ransoms, but may threaten to publish it for ransom payments, security experts warn.

From the sharp rise of cyber-attacks in recent years, internet users have learned to be wary. However, this has been met with the vicious growth of various techniques of cyber-attacks, which are becoming smarter and smarter. This new tactic will be sure to scare some in to paying up!
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Cisco reportedly failed to protect users’ data following system maintenance

Cisco Systems, a renowned leader in IT, has admitted that one of its websites has leaked their users’ personal details.

It goes to show that even the big IT companies can find it impossible to keep personal data 100 per cent secure. You could argue that it’s particularly embarrassing for Cisco, as the company reportedly prides itself on its security.

It’s a stark reminder about just how vulnerable our personal data continues to be!
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