Welcome To The Data Leak Lawyers Blog

MyHeritage data breach a wake-up call

The MyHeritage data breach was a massive wake-up call about the dangers of providing personal and sensitive data to companies, with some 92m users affected by the breach.

When we have the ability to provide companies like MyHeritage with DNA information, which is used together with personal and sensitive information and a wealth of data about family histories, the massive MyHeritage data breach is a monumental wake-up call.

The family networking and genealogy site discovered the data breach last month, which reportedly took place in October last year.

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Ticketmaster data breach

There has been a Ticketmaster data breach that we’re advising victims for and taking on claims for data breach compensation.

People who used the Tickmaster service between February and June 2018 may have been affected.

The Ticketmaster data breach was discovered on Saturday 23^rd June and customers have today received email notifications confirming whether they have been affected by the breach. Personal information and payment information is thought to have been accessed.

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Profits set to fall in wake of Dixons Carphone cyber-attack

Profits are set to fall in the wake of the Dixons Carphone cyber-attack. A sharp fall in profits is expected after news of the massive cyber-attack that exposed some 5.9 million credit and debit card details, and some 1.2 million personal data records.

Some reports have indicated the fall in profits may be as much as 23pc.

The Dixons Carphone cyber-attack apparently took place last year, yet it has taken them almost a year for the news to be revealed; a matter that they will no doubt face further criticism for.

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TalkTalk accused of continuing to neglect cybersecurity

Telecoms giant TalkTalk have been accused of continuing to neglect cybersecurity after a hacker contacted Sky news and reported website security flaws that had been left unfixed for years.

The news comes as little surprise to us as we continue to represent victims for previous TalkTalk cyber-hacks that were, in our view, entirely preventable.

According to the media reports from the end of March, the hacker found a simple scripting error that allowed him to take control of a TalkTalk.co.uk URL, and use it to trick customers that they were visiting a genuine TalkTalk website.
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Victims of Equifax data breach receiving letters containing incorrect personal data

A number of victims of the Equifax data breach have been receiving letters containing incorrect personal data, according to media reports; further exacerbating the massive data breach that has affected some 700,000 people in the UK alone.

According to Equifax, determining the best addresses for some victims had been “complex” and had resulted in letters being sent out that are thoughts to have contained erroneous information.

As time has passed, the Equifax data breach seems to have worsened and worsened, and this is yet another problem adding to the pile.

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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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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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Emergency services upgrade to tougher Samsung smartphones

The British government have struck a £210 million deal with South Korean technology giant, Samsung, to arm its emergency services with custom toughened smartphones.

Britain’s police, paramedics and fire crews will be supplied with Samsung smartphones to carry out their jobs more easily and efficiently. For £210 million, Samsung will provide the services with 250,000 smartphones on a three-year deal. These devices are said to be water-resistant and will be connected to 4G internet.
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There’s a reported shortage of cybersecurity specialists to protect organisations from breaches

The number of breaches are on the rise and they’re set to continue to rise due to an apparent shortage of experts trained in cybersecurity.

The Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) teamed-up with IT firm Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) to produce a report on cybersecurity. Released one year after their first one, the report depicts a problem that is getting worse.

And we should all be very, very concerned about it…
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New online portal offers help against ransomware attacks

Ransomware is software that blocks users having access to their computer system until a sum of money is paid. Ransomware helps to facilitate the evolution of cybercrime as it often funds more advanced types of cyber-crime software that can also be sold on to other cyber-criminals… Allowing for more cyber-attacks to happen.

The advice has been and still remains “do not pay the ransom”, if you do fall victim to hackers – by people paying the ransom they continue to fuel a vicious cybercrime circle. Even though people do pay, there is also no guarantee that people will regain access to their computer system.
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