Welcome To The Data Leak Lawyers Blog

Growth in settlements for data breaches

Data protection laws around the world have allowed victims of serious data breaches to claim the compensation they rightfully deserve. As the number of data breaches seems to continually be on the rise, we’re seeing some huge settlements for breaches amongst cases where data has potentially been exposed forever.

The growth in data breach settlements may well continue to rise as well unless organsations get the vital grip they need on securing their servers and protecting the data they hold.
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Inquiry launched over University of East Anglia data leak blunder

The University of East Anglia (UEA) are facing an investigation over the shocking data breach that saw a number of students have their personal circumstances emailed directly to hundreds of fellow course mates.

The document listed extenuating circumstances of a number of students explaining why certain students were authorised to have an extension on assignments, postpone exams and take time off their course.

Some of the reasons included death or a family member, personal medical and mental health issues, and even sexual assault.
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Healthcare sector takes the number one spot for the sector with the most data breaches in the U.K.

Some might wonder why banking isn’t at the top. Surely, that’s where the big bucks are at?

But if you’ve been keeping up with our blogs, you’ll know that healthcare is not only a bigger target, but also one that can be easier for breaches to occur. It’s no secret that our National Health Service is struggling under immense pressure with increased patient numbers, continual budgets cuts, and “overworked and underpaid” staff.

With these financial struggles comes the inability to afford top quality cyber security and updated operating systems; leaving the healthcare system wide open to breaches and attacks.
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Data leaks caused by mobile phone devices

Many people forget the associated risks that portable digital devices come with. Many may have a false sense of security that computers are the main source of data breaches, but some may be quick to disregard mobile phones as a huge danger for leaking data.

Security researchers note the increased dangers of data leaks as more employees bring their own devices to work. If employees bring their own devices to the workplace, you can count this as an additional avenue for a breach to happen. Mobile devices are easily connected and employees are often allowed to connect mobile devices to their work servers to assist when working in or outside of the office.

You can see it either as another door for a data breach to happen or an opportunity to get inside as the door has been left open or is now weak enough to break in to…
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OneLogin’s data breach – Just how serious was it?

There’s a big demand for cyber security globally as the rise of the digital age continues to pave the way for data breaches, leaks and hacks on an almost continual basis.

Yet despite the rise in cyber security that goes hand in hand with the rise of cybercrime, it seems multiple companies and organisations are still failing in their obligations to protect data securely. In recent news, one of San Francisco Bay area’s most established companies has been hacked, potentially affecting thousands worldwide.
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77 million user account details hacked from popular education platform Edmodo

Reports of the recent Edmodo data breach inform us that around 77 million unique user account details were stolen from the popular education platform.

This online platform is widely used throughout U.S. and Canadian schools to support learning by allowing students, teachers and parents to access learning plans and homework. Media outlet Motherboard reported that nearly 77 million users account details were for sale on the dark web.
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Most sensitive and personal data breach in Australia’s history?

In what is being described as “one of the worst data breaches” in Australian history, naked photos and medical records of hundreds of women have been published online.

The Cosmetic Institute in Bondi was hit by the breach where sensitive data of hundreds of patients who undertook cosmetic surgery at the clinic was accessible outside the clinic. The leaked data is thought to include a wealth of very personal data about the affected victims, so this is a very serious breach indeed.
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AA’s data breach: recovery may not be enough this time…

Leading U.K. motoring company the AA is the latest to be involved in a data breach scandal that could end up crippling for customers.

AA President, Edmund King, finally confirmed they were informed of the potential vulnerability of the AA Shop data on 22^nd April 2017.

The motoring company reportedly misled customers by denying they had any knowledge of the leak and tried to reassure customers that their information was very secure. Researchers weren’t convinced this was the case and so decided to dig deeper, and it has since transpired that AA knew about the vulnerability in their database systems back in April.
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U.K. government reportedly breaching personal data at least once an hour

Some may fall into a false sense of security that governmental departments are the safest place for securing data, but latest statistics reveal that personal data held by governmental departments is being breached at least once an hour!

According to the Commons’ Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report, there were an astonishing 8,995 data breaches in the largest 17 Whitehall departments back in 2015.

The figure amounts to approximately 24 breaches a day; i.e. one an hour!
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U.K. Firms “very unprepared” for data breaches

Telecommunication companies say they expect the number of breaches to rise over the next year and around 75% of these companies are wary that this is the case.

The study, undertaken by analyst firm Ovum, and commissioned by analytics software firm FICO, found that although 53% of U.K. executives believe there will be a growth in attempts to access data, less than half of firms are likely to direct their resources to enhancing cyber-security. This approach is clearly dangerous and reckless.

They’re aware that more and more people are trying to access data, but they seem to forget that, without effective cyber-security, more and more data breaches will be inevitable.
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