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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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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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Gwent Police to be investigated over “hiding” data protection breach

Worryingly, the police occupy one of the top spots in terms of organisations at the centre of data breaches, data leaks and hacks. Victims whose data is compromised in a data protection breach deserve to be notified as soon as possible, but it’s not unheard of for an organisation to “hide” a data breach as opposed to facing up to it and dealing with it.

Reportedly, Gwent Police are to be investigated for doing just that.

News sources say that Gwent Police are being investigated for failing to inform hundreds of individuals that their data protection rights had been breached.
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NHS staff accessing neighbour’s medical records is NOT okay

There is a recent worrying trend of NHS staff being caught out snooping on people they know, or are related to, by abusing their powers to access their medical records.

Let’s be absolutely clear: it is NOT okay for any member of the NHS to access their neighbour’s medical records without good reason or due authorisation.

If you are informed that a member of the NHS staff has accessed your medical records in such a way, or if you discover it has happened, you may be entitled to claim for data protection breach compensation.
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Hugh Grant joins the list of celebrities whose cases against Trinity Mirror Group have settled for phone hacking

Actor Hugh Grant is said to have received a six-figure settlement sum as a victim of the infamous phone-hacking scandal involving Trinity Mirror Group.

Mr Grant reportedly condemned members of the Mirror outlets involved, including Piers Morgan, who was in charge at the time when the hacking took place but denies knowledge or involvement in the shameful and illegal behaviour.

This remains one of the most infamous cases of the misuse of private information that was attained by hacking into victims’ phones and voice-mails.
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The pressure is piling on Equifax – our Data Leak Lawyers are still taking cases on

We’ve initiated our action against Equifax for victims of the Equifax data protection breach here in the UK. We’re now acting for many people affected by the data protection breach, but you can still join the action if you have yet to do so.

We’re confident there is a case to answer, but at the same time, more and more is coming out about the breach, and the pressure is piling on the credit-reference agency at the centre of the huge cyber-hack from 2017.
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NHS health board left “devastated and disappointed” after another employee data protection breach

In what Hywel Dda University Health Board admitted to be the second data protection breach they have faced of this nature, yet another NHS worker has been caught accessing confidential medical records without a valid reason.

Instances of NHS workers accessing medical records when they have no reason or right to access them is a common problem at the moment. Most of the time, staff committing the breaches are accessing records for people they know out of nothing more than curiosity.
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Council worker fined after being caught sharing personal data on Snapchat

It’s not only NHS workers who are breaching data protection rules by accessing medical records when they shouldn’t be. There’s also a worrying trend of data being breached by the rogue actions of employees, and with data being so easily shared nowadays, we remain concerned.

With a huge amount of councils lacking proper mandatory data protection training, you could argue there are potentially thousands of employees out there who don’t know any better. This is not good enough, and these prosecutions should serve as stern warnings to both employers and employees about breaching data protection rights by illegally sharing data.
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Why we’re not surprised that the number of UK Equifax cyber-hack victims has grown again!

At first, Equifax indicated there were some 300,000 UK victims of the Equifax cyber-hack, which then grew to 400,000, and eventually almost 700,000.

Now, we know Equifax has sent out warning letters to more than 860,000 of their UK customers, and we expect our client numbers to grow as more people are potentially able to join our Equifax action and claim compensation.

That’s more than double the original estimation, but this kind of thing is not uncommon at all. In fact, it can be incredibly hard to know exactly how many people are affected by a cyber-hack initially, and in some cases, it can be hard to know the exact numbers at all.
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Councils and local government authorities still failing to report data protection breaches

New information from the Big Brother Watch privacy group suggests that local authorities are still failing to report data protection breaches. In May 2018, the new GDPR legislation will come into force and councils will have to abide by regulations that will make the reporting of many data protection breaches compulsory.

But, aside from the impact the new laws may have, we cannot avoid the underlying issue here. With estimations that UK councils have been hit by almost 100 million cyberattacks in the last five years, the fact of the matter is that sensitive data is vulnerable in their hands.
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