We focus on the latest news surrounding data breaches, leaks and hacks plus daily internet security articles.
A Medway Council data breach incident has been discovered by a security researcher after “rudimentary” tests found a bug in a system that may have exposed personal data.
Council data breach compensation claims are increasingly common these days, and a lot of it is likely down to a lack of investment in security and technology. One of the most common types of legal cases we take forward involve local authorities or the agencies they employ, and we regularly see these kinds of breach stories hitting the news.
In this case, it appears that an issue with an online inquiry form may have allowed anyone to access the personal information of some residents.
We represent people for police-related data incidents, and with this in mind, here’s a number of reasons as to why the recent Eurofins data breach is a worrying one.
In case you’ve not heard of this one, this relates to an organisation that the police outsource forensic work to. Eurofins reportedly process more than 70,000 cases per year, and deal with DNA analysis, toxicology, ballistics and computer forensics. As such, they can be at the heart of investigations into serious crimes, including murder, sexual offences and terrorism.
Worryingly, they were recently hit by a ransomware attack. This has led to a number of concerns about the security and quality of the work they carry out, and has caused significant disruption to police investigations.
The recent record-setting British Airways and Marriott fines that are to be enforced by regulators show the importance of cybersecurity to prevent breaches, and justice for the victims when an incident occurs.
What we saw was two major organisations whose systems were breached when we should be able to expect big corporations to protect our data. We should be able to safely assume that these large, wealthy organisations can – and will – invest in solid cybersecurity. But both have undoubtedly fallen short, and the result is huge fines and claims for compensation for the victims.
The levels of the provisional fines to be enforced shows how seriously the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is taking breaches of GDPR. The compensation actions that we represent people for are the way forward when it comes to justice for victims, which is not accounted for as part of regulatory fines.
The act of unlawfully accessing personal data can land the offender in a lot of trouble, and it can pave the way for the victims to make a claim for data breach compensation.
Your rights are enshrined in law, and if your rights to information privacy are ever breached, you can be entitled to take legal action. In today’s digital age where information access and sharing are achievable at the click of a button, there’s a wealth of data for millions of people that can be accessed by many individuals.
But people can only access and process information where they’re authorised to do so and have a legitimate reason to do so. Any access of personal data that isn’t done so in accordance with important data legislation can be unlawful. We can represent victims who wish to take a case forward on a No Win, No Fee basis.
For the victim, stolen medical data can lead to a significant amount of distress, and there can be a huge number of risks if your private and sensitive information has been exposed.
We know that criminals and fraudsters target medical data because it can be valuable to them for a number of reasons. It can be used for ransom and identity theft, or even for criminals to produce forged documents like receipts and prescriptions. The so-called ‘dark web’ is reportedly rife with medical data that’s up for sale.
As a victim, what can you do if your medical data is stolen? Can you be eligible to make a claim for medical data breach compensation?
News of a victim support data breach has been published by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which has led to a caseworker being prosecuted.
It’s reported that Restorative Justice Caseworker, Jeannette Baines, who had worked with victim support, sent personal and private information from a work email address to a personal email address.
This kind of breach where employees misuse their rights of access to personal data to send it to personal accounts isn’t uncommon. Many of the ICO’s individual prosecutions involve this kind of breach being committed, and the consequences for the offender can be severe.
You may be entitled to make a claim for compensation as a victim of a hotel data breach, and we may be able to represent you on a No Win, No Fee basis.
For a long time now, hotel chains have been targets for cyber criminals. A wealth of personal and sensitive data is collected and used by hotels for guests, and payment information collected at the point-of-sale can also be a target.
There have been a few famous examples of hotel data breach incidents, including the Marriott incident and numerous point-of-sale attacks. As a victim of such a breach, you may have the right to make a legal case for compensation.
There can be huge risks when it comes to online streaming data breach incidents, with research showing that they’re one of the biggest targets for cybercriminals.
And it makes sense as to why they’re a huge target as well. Not only could they gain financial information from your account, but they could also use your account for pirating as well.
Online streaming is growing and growing in popularity, so there’s no way that it will be left behind when it comes to targets for cybercriminals and hackers. It can be so easy for accounts to be breached, so you need to make sure to do all you can to protect yourself. And know your rights when it’s not your fault!
In the continually growing world of digital storage, exposed database compensation claims are inevitably on the rise, and will likely continue to rise until more is done to protect people’s information.
There are so many ways that databases can be exposed, and exposure can stem from leaks, hacks and poor access management. There have been high profile cases where databases have been exposed, and the organisations are paying the price in fines and in compensation claims. Some of the group action and multi-party actions we’re running stem from exposed databases, so we know how bad it can get when data breaches happen this way.
Never suffer in silence if you fall victim to an exposed database incident. You may qualify to make a claim for data breach compensation, and we may be able to represent you for it.
As tech moves more and more into cyberspace, cloud data breaches are on the rise, and we expect they may keep rising as well.
But why aren’t they secure in the first place, and what can you do if you’re the victim of a cloud data breach incident?
There can be a number of reasons as to how cloud data breaches happen. One of the questions that victims of a data breach may ask is who their legal case needs to be against: the organisation responsible for your data, or the cloud provider. Either way, you may be able to make a claim for data breach compensation when your data is breached, hacked or leaked as a result of the use of cloud software.
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