We focus on the latest news surrounding data breaches, leaks and hacks plus daily internet security articles.
When private medical information is exposed or misused, the impact on the victim can be substantial. This is why it is important to claim data breach compensation as a victim of this kind of event.
Whether it is a singular case where someone has leaked your clinical data, or perhaps where your medical records have been snooped on by someone, we may be able to help you. Or, if you are a part of a wider event that has affected many people, we can help as pioneers of data group and multi-party actions. We have launched over 50 of them to date, representing thousands of victims for cases.
Your Lawyers – The original Data Leak Lawyers – is a leading firm of privacy compensation experts that has recovered over £1m in damages to date for mostly individual claimants since 2014. We want to help you if your private information has been misused or exposed, and we are here for you now.
Leading Data and Privacy Law firm Your Lawyers have been concerned to learn of an investigation into plans to sell Covid test samples for medical research.
The news was broken in November 2021, and reportedly involves Cignpost Diagnostics, trading as ExpressTest, who are understood to have conducted almost three million tests. It has been suggested that there are plans by the company to analyse samples from swabs and sell data to third parties, according to inews.
The private company is an approved provider of testing, and it has been reported that the company is now being investigated by the UK’s data regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). There was understood to be a tick box as part of the purchasing process for the test that formed as part of a large privacy policy with links to a research programme. This is understood to have since been removed and appears to be the matter at the centre of the investigation.
All data breaches can be capable of having a serious impact on victims, but the severity of a breach generally increases according to how much information is exposed, and the sensitivity of that information. Patient and employee data breaches, therefore, constitute some of the most harmful data security incidents that a victim can fall prey to.
Your Lawyers, as leading specialists in data breach law, have seen the damage that can be caused when personal data is compromised or exposed. Everyone should feel safe and secure in their hospitals or workplaces, but negligence of data protection principles can severely endanger people’s privacy.
In fact, all data controllers have a legal obligation to protect the personal information they process and hold. Where they fail to do so, they may be liable to pay damages to those affected. Making a data breach claim can allow you to recover the compensation you deserve, so contact our team for free, no-obligation advice if you think you may have a claim to make.
Healthcare has long been regarded as particularly vulnerable to external cyber threats. The potential vulnerability of healthcare organisations can be twofold: not only can their databases offer a wealth of highly sensitive data for cybercriminals to misuse, they have also been seen as weak in terms of their cybersecurity defences. Healthcare network breaches could occur when attackers exploit vulnerabilities in systems, finding a route via which to access private medical information.
All healthcare organisations must, therefore, be on their guard when it comes to potential cybersecurity threats, but this is not always the case. When cybercriminals do break through, the data theft can have catastrophic consequences for the affected patients or employees, potentially causing them significant distress and even financial loss.
If you have been affected by a medical data breach, you will likely feel let down by your healthcare provider’s failure to prevent the attack. Where the organisation failed to do enough to protect your information, you could be entitled to claim compensation. Contact us for further information and to find out whether you could be eligible for a data breach claim.
It has been reported that the recent Stor-A-File cyberattack resulted in hackers demanding a ransom of three million pounds in Bitcoin which has reportedly been rejected, leading to data being exposed online.
Last week, we covered the issues facing the Lister Fertility Clinic who are understood to have written to some 1,700 patients over medical records that Stor-A-File had been providing scanning services for. With potentially sensitive medical information at stake, it had been feared that patients of the clinic could be vulnerable to their private and sensitive medical information being compromised.
Now, it has been reported that the worst looks to have happened and that private and sensitive data stolen in the attack has now been put onto the dark web.
It has been revealed that the Lister Fertility Clinic data breach may affect some 1,700 patients of the private clinic, and victims of the cyberattack will need to be wary.
If you have received confirmation from the clinic that you have been affected, you could be eligible to pursue a claim for data breach compensation on a No Win, No Fee basis. The leading team here at Your Lawyers – The Data Leak Lawyers – is happy to offer you free, no-obligation advice on a confidential basis now.
We are concerned that victims may end up being targeted by ransomware and scams, and it is important that those affected are protected as much as they can be.
As patients, we trust that our data is held securely by healthcare organisations, and that medical professionals will only access and use our information when absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, hospital data snooping does occur, as some healthcare staff view patient information without authorisation or consent.
Whether intentional or unintentional, data snooping is a practice that all healthcare staff must steer clear of, particularly due to the sensitivity of medical records. It is understandably worrying for victims to learn that their information has been subjected to unauthorised access, as there could be malicious intent behind the user’s actions. When healthcare staff abuse or take advantage of their data access privileges in this way, it can constitute a breach of data protection law.
If you believe that your privacy has been violated in this way, you could be eligible to claim compensation for the harm caused. Contact us for free, no-obligation advice now if you think you may have a claim to make.
The healthcare sector has long been a target for cyberattacks, and this threat can be compounded by the often-poor cybersecurity adopted by some hospitals and doctors’ practices, as well as employee errors that have brought about a number of data breaches in recent years. Health data breaches can be particularly harmful to those affected, as the personal information and medical records held by healthcare providers can, understandably, be intensely private to patients.
The problem of health data breaches appears to have exacerbated further over the past year or so. The Covid-19 pandemic has prompted a surge in cyberattacks across all kinds of organisations, but healthcare has been seen as a particularly vulnerable sector due to the increased strain brought by managing coronavirus.
Regardless of the circumstances in which a data breach occurs, there is never any excuse for healthcare organisations that have failed to protect patient and employee data. If held to account in a data breach claim, these organisations could be forced to pay out compensation to the affected victims. If you have been affected by a data breach incident and wish to seek justice, do not hesitate to contact us for free, no-obligation advice.
We are now two years on from the discovery of a mass snooping scandal in Greater Manchester involving Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust where the unauthorised access to medical records affected some 2,000 people.
We represent clients for cases in this serious abuse of access by what is understood to be more than one employee at the Trust in question. We represent clients for cases where their wider medical records were accessed during their treatment by people who did not need to access their data, and had no right or reason to. We have also been recommending that our clients check their medical records too as a number of inaccuracies have been identified also.
This all suggests that the practice of medical records data protection and organisation has been poor at the Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust. We continue to represent people for data breach compensation claims, and you can still join our group action for the mass snooping event. You can also speak to our team for free, no-obligation advice about general issues over unauthorised access to medical records as well.
With many businesses and other organisations opting for cloud storage to hold personal information, there is a new dimension of risk management for data controllers to deal with. Healthcare cloud data breaches can be a particular risk, as the healthcare sector has long been a target of cyberattacks, and hospitals’ cloud storage systems can contain a wealth of sensitive data.
When configured and operated correctly, cloud databases should be entirely secure; but user errors can compromise entire systems. Private information can be put at risk by these needless mistakes, leaving the victims vulnerable to data misuse.
Anyone who has had their personal security endangered by a cloud data breach may be able to claim compensation. There are no excuses for database mismanagement, so companies can be held accountable in accordance with the law. To find out more about making a claim, you can contact our team for free, no-obligation advice.
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