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Possible Yahoo data breach being investigated

Yahoo are currently investigating the potential data leak by the hacker who was linked to the “mega-breaches” of MySpace and LinkedIn; a topic we recently covered.

The hacker has allegedly posted the details of 200 million Yahoo accounts onto the ‘dark web’ and is selling them for three bitcoins (£1,360).

The hacker is using the same name – ‘Peace’ – that was used from the 2012 data leaks, which makes the hacker “most likely” to be the same person. Yahoo is currently “working to determine the facts” and are taking the claim “very seriously”.
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Wolverhampton Council suffers huge data leak

Wolverhampton council are reportedly at the centre of a huge data leak when almost 10,000 peoples private information was mistakenly emailed to the wrong person.

In November 2015, Wolverhampton council sought a report from its payroll department. Due to an error, 9,858 people’s personal data was sent to an external third party by accident.

Those affected by the mistake included 73 education establishments, although it is not clear if the data released was about Wolverhampton city’s schools and teachers. The data leaked was on a spreadsheet containing personal information, and it has not been said if those who have had their privacy rights breached have been informed.
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Information Commissioner Office (ICO) recent reports in to public sector data breaches

The Information Commissioner Office is the UK’s independent body that upholds information rights (https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/who-we-are/). They cover different legislation and handle tens of thousands of enquires, complaints, and concerns that are made each year. They take action and investigate how organisations handle data.

Where bodies fail to meet requirements of legislation, the ICO can do different things which include; prosecute those who commit criminal offences under the Act; report to Parliament on issues of concerns; or conduct investigations to assess and check if organisations are complying with the Act.

As Data Leak Lawyers we can occasionally work with them, but our role is to help properly compensate victims of data leaks, breaches, and hacks. A lot of the work they cover is relevant for what we do though.
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Industry Reaction to O2 Data Hack

O2 customer data was found for sale on the dark web from a hack that reportedly took place several years ago. The data was supposedly obtained from gaming website XSplit.

Log-in details were stolen from XSplit, and were then matched with a number of O2 accounts, allowing the hackers access to customer’s personal information. This is known as credential stuffing.

As so many people are online and reuse the same usernames and passwords, even though we are told not to, this hack has made people vulnerable to further problems. The hacker’s accessed customer’s personal information such as phone numbers, emails, and their date of birth. You can read more on this story here.

Today, we’ll be looking at the industry’s reaction to the hack.
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SwiftKey ‘glitch’ a potential data leak?

SwiftKey is a device for both IOS and Android systems such like smart phones and tablets. It has a database that stores commonly used words and phrases used by the owner. When the user is typing, SwiftKey can offer suggestions on what words to use. This can include things like email addresses, names, and phone numbers commonly used.

Last week it was reported that users of SwiftKey had been experiencing problems when using the keyboard. Users of the keyboard reported that they were receiving other people’s suggestions, which also included personal information like email addresses, phone numbers, and names. There were also reports of word suggestions in different languages that users had not used before.
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Local Government data leaks – a common problem

Our local governments hold a wealth of information about us.

Due to how much information they have on us, data breaches from local government organisations can be a major concern. One of the most frustrating things about local government data leaks is that we are required to share so much of our personal information with them that it makes even small vulnerabilities a huge problem.

Unlike businesses, where we arguably have more of an option when it comes to how much of our personal information we chose to share with them,  when it comes to sharing information with our government, it is often a necessity, and can be some of our most personal information indeed.

As we hand over more and more personal data, we expect it to be kept secure – but this is not always the case.
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Should CEOs be held directly accountable for data breaches?

With recent data hacks being so huge, like the TalkTalk hack, social media giants MySpace and dating site hacks such as Beautiful People, more needs to be done to help prevent online attacks.

There has now been a call for more responsibility to be put on company CEOs to make them more accountable when dealing with a data breach. This has been a recommendation by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, who carried out a report in the wake of the TalkTalk data hack.
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Breach of NHS Patient confidentiality – more common than you think!

All members of the NHS have a duty to not disclose patient’s personal information. This is a part of the foundation of a patient/ doctor relationship. However, whilst most people believe their personal information is protected, data breaches by the NHS have been discovered to be more common than you think!

NHS data breaches can have serious consequences for the victims involved.
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Companies fear their data is at risk to online attacks

The majority of UK companies have revealed that their data is not adequately protected against the risk of data breaches.

A recent survey revealed that nearly 70% of companies that took part feared their data would be at risk if their systems were breached.

Only 7% of respondents were confident that their data would be secure if a company’s security perimeter was breached. 97% of companies in the UK actually admitted that their systems were ineffective in protecting its data from hackers and any other unauthorised users.
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TalkTalk Customers targeted by scammers and fraudsters; but what are TalkTalk doing about it?

The 2015 TalkTalk hack resulted in the details for 156,959 customers being accessed. Of these, 15,656 bank account numbers and sort codes were accessed.

Off the back of this, fraudsters have been targeting TalkTalk customers, and we can only assume they are doing it off the back of the information that has been hacked. We’re acting for a number of people who have been called by fraudsters pretending to be TalkTalk and scamming them out of money.

But TalkTalk seem awfully quiet on the very serious issue of their customers being targeted by clever fraudsters from what we have seen…
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