Data breaches don’t come cheap… £120 million to be exact…

Numerous security experts have noted that data breaches at the Financial Times Stock Exchange’s (FTSE) 100 firms have cost approximately £120 million in market value.

£120 million isn’t really loose change that organisations and firms should disregard; it should be a wake-up call!

According to the Breach Level Index, almost 1.4 billion data records were lost or stolen in 2016. The statistics showed an 86% increase from the previous year. The Breach Level Index notes that:

“…more and more organisations are accepting the fact that, despite their best efforts, security breaches are unavoidable.”

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1,200 hotel chains worldwide affected by malware data breach

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) originally believed that 12 of their properties were compromised from the data breach, but it now transpires that approximately 1,200 IHG hotels are affected.

On the 19^th April 2017, IHG released new information in regards to the data breach. The information shows that the cyber-attack’s consequences were far worse than originally thought.

The data breach led to the theft of hotel guests credit card information.
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Met Police potentially breaching 30,000 individuals’ data

The Metropolitan Police are being questioned for potentially breaching the personal data of approximately 30,000 firearm owners.

It transpires that the London Metropolitan Police have reportedly disclosed the names and addresses of 30,000 firearm and shotgun owners (around 5,000 rifle owners and 25,000 shotgun owners) to a direct mail marketing agency, named Yes Direct Mail, which is said to be as part of an advertising campaign.

In the absence of specific permissions, any handover of information can be construed as a breach of data law.
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RinGo Parking App Potentially Leaks 2,000 Customers Details

It’s almost impossible to avoid everyday news of another company being added to the long list of data breach perpetrators and here’s another one…

Parking app “RinGo” is the latest company to suffer a breach. The app supposedly removes the hassle of paying for parking, making it quick and easy without the need to queue.

After the company updated their app, hundreds of customers reportedly saw other people’s details when they tried to log into the app.
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Latest data breach affecting customers of mobile provider Three

Three are experiencing more technical issues and more backlash as customers are reporting another data breach.

Customers are reportedly left fuming as they discovered the data breach after they logged into their accounts to find names, addresses, phone numbers, and call histories of other customers rather than themselves. Three previously came under fire for failing to alert customers of the initial data breach which happened in November 2016; which sounds a little like déjà vu…
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26 million GP records may have been breached

Medical records contain a wealth of information on patients, and any leak or breach of medical information is a serious one.

Scarily, an investigation has been launched into the security of a computer system that holds 26 million patients’ records. The investigation, launched by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), is looking at whether the computer system complies with the data protection act.

If it wasn’t, who knows how bad this breach could be?
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Customers of “pay day loan firm” Wonga victims of serious data breach

UPDATE: PLEASE NOTE THAT WE ARE NO LONGER ABLE TO ACCEPT NEW CASES IN THIS MATTER.

For help and advice for other data breach cases and matters, please contact the team here now.

Around 270,000 customers of “pay day loan firm” Wonga have had their personal information accessed after hackers broke in to the loan company’s customer database.

The company said they’re looking into the incident and are “urgently investigating illegal and unauthorised access to the personal data of some of its customers in the UK and Poland”.

With data like bank details and other personal information accessed, customers may now be at serious risk of financial losses, as well as further breaches and serious distress.
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Parliament Scandal – data breach affects thousands of MPs’ employees

Of all people to accidentally publish personal details, you wouldn’t have thought it’d be an independent watchdog…

Following news reports form the BBC, the expenses watchdog has been left red-faced and has issued an apology for their disastrous error where approximately 3,000 MPs’ employees and their salaries were mistakenly published.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) was created by Parliament in 2009 to independently oversee and regulate MPs’ business costs and expenses, and in this instance, they have found themselves at the centre of a scandal themselves.
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“Honesty is the best policy” – Consumers appreciate companies’ transparency in the event of a breach

A new report from NTT Security shows that transparency and honesty are what consumers most desire in the event of a breach.

However this is not new news. This has been the general consensus for many years following the sharp rise in data breaches in recent years. People are keen to know if their data has been compromised, and people deserve to know so they can assess what they may need to do.
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“The NHS’ data protection obligation” – former NHS employee’s data breach shows the importance of the NHS’ duty to protect our data

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has prosecuted and fined a former NHS employee, Kayleigh Evans, for the unlawful access of personal information. The fine imposed amounted to more than £1,000.

The former employee of the Solent NHS Trust accessed sensitive medical records of a former girlfriend of her partner without need or proper authority. The ICO’s investigation concluded that Ms Evans accessed the medical records over a ten month period without consent.
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