Welcome To The Data Leak Lawyers Blog
We focus on the latest news surrounding data breaches, leaks and hacks plus daily internet security articles.
We focus on the latest news surrounding data breaches, leaks and hacks plus daily internet security articles.
For the victims, data leaks often take an emotional or psychological toll, with psychiatrists in some cases reporting significant distress in their patients. As such, when a leak involves mental health data, the effects can be even more devastating as the victims may already have mental health problems or conditions.
To have an added stress on top of their day-to-day difficulties could be unbearable.
Unfortunately, data breaches at healthcare organisations hit the headlines all too frequently, suggesting that there are still wide-reaching failings in their approaches to data protection. At Your Lawyers – the Data Leak Lawyers – we appreciate that the ongoing stigma surrounding mental health issues can make the effects of such data leaks even more damaging. As a leading firm of data breach lawyers, we are here to support mental health patients who have been failed by the organisations that are supposed to ensure their safety when it comes to data and privacy.
In today’s digital world, we often expect data breaches to occur in cyber settings. However, the risk of data leaks, loss and theft involving physical records and documents is also a cause for concern, and companies still need to be vigilant in protecting their hard material information.
Incidents involving physical records can happen a lot. The all too frequent neglect of physical records is exemplified in the case of Westbury House, a Hampshire care home that closed in 2016 after being deemed an unfit care provider.
It was reportedly found to have abandoned confidential staff and patient information in the uninhabited building. The information was only proved to have been removed and secured at the start of December, 4 years after the care home’s closure. Over the course of these years, obvious negligence could have allowed trespassers to breach the building and rifle through the files. A failure of data protection such as this cannot go unnoticed.
A recent leak of patient data has called into question the data protection practices of Lloyds Pharmacy. A parcel containing the prescription records of hundreds of Lloyds pharmacy patients is believed to have been intended for an NHS recipient, but mistakenly reached a personal home 300 miles away instead.
When the unintended recipient opened the box, she was shocked at the mass of details she found, assuming they were intended for the NHS prescription services in Bolton.
While Lloyds Pharmacy has placed the blame on an external courier service who mistakenly delivered the parcel, they may not be able to sidestep their ultimate responsibility for the control and handling of their own data in accordance with the GDPR. The incident undoubtedly highlights the risks organisations take when entrusting an external party with the safety of confidential records.
According to recent media reports, a large number of psychotherapy patients, who belong to the same large clinic in Finland, found themselves on the receiving end of blackmail from a data breach.
Vastaamo, a countrywide practice, appears to have been targeted in two separate breaches, one potentially occurring in March 2019, and an initial attack as far back as November 2018. It appears that victims’ personal data was stolen from the company’s data storage system.
Although this is not a case we can represent people for, with it not being in England or Wales, it is an important one to consider. Ultimately, the risks – as we often advise – when it comes to this kind of data breach can be severe.
In the case of the recent Transform Hospital Group data breach, the large cosmetic surgery chain has been targeted by hackers who seem to be aiming to extort money from the company.
The group has not yet given a number for how many customers have been affected, but the data exposed is reported to be extensive. The inclusion of ‘before and after’ surgery photos has been a cause of particular concern among the victims, who fear they may be published on the internet.
For anyone involved in a data leak, the impact of having your information exposed can be devastating. In some of the worst of cases, the privacy of the information exposed can make the aftermath a deeply upsetting time. We have already taken on clients who have been affected by the Transform Hospital Group data breach, so do not hesitate to contact us if you would like advice regarding your potential compensation claim.
A medical data breach is often serious as our medical data often represents the most personal information that we will ever entrust to a third party.
The faith we invest in medical professionals to protect this data is indicative of our confidence in their ability to care, and in the health service more generally.
However, this trust is at risk of being eroded due to the succession of medical data breaches that we have encountered, either first-hand or in the headlines, in recent years. When such breaches occur, the exposed information can be highly sensitive and, depending on the affected individual’s circumstances, can dramatically affect their mental state and/or their relationships. It is vital that the confidential doctor-patient relationship at the heart of the NHS is not damaged by a failure to prevent these exposures.
Social services data breaches can be extremely serious. Social services hold information on vulnerable children and their parents, and their job is to protect this information and safeguard the welfare of vulnerable children.
As such, data breaches of this nature can be extremely serious and can put vulnerable people at risk.
Your Lawyers (T/a The Data Leak Lawyers) are highly experienced in the complex area of data breach law as a leading firm in the UK, and we have been representing clients in privacy matters as far back as 2014. We are currently representing victims across dozens of multi-party and group action claims, and our expert team is ready to help you if you have been affected by a data breach; particularly any social services data breaches.
Human error medical data breaches can be extremely common, and a big reason is due to the fact that many medical organisations do not direct adequate resources into preventing such breaches.
It is extremely important for medical institutions to keep the sensitive data that they hold secure and protected. When human error medical data breaches occur, an event like this can serve to undermine the GDPR and the medical staff’s responsibility to keep patient data safe. It can also undermine the trust that the victims have in the services being provided.
If you have been the victim of a human error medical data breach, do not hesitate to get in touch to see if you have a claim to make. As a leading firm of data breach compensation lawyers, our expert legal team has years of experience helping people in the complex field of data breach law, and we may be able to help you get the justice that you deserve.
It is important to know that you can claim for a serious patient data breach.
If your personal and sensitive medical data has been misused or exposed as part of a healthcare data breach, you could be eligible to make a substantial data breach compensation claim, dependant on exactly what information is involved.
Your Lawyers (T/A The Data Leak Lawyers) is a leading, specialist data breach law firm with years of experience in representing victims of medical data breach compensation legal cases. We have been at the forefront of data breach action since 2014, fighting for victims in some of the most infamous healthcare breaches like the 56 Dean Street Clinic Leak. We have helped thousands of people claim millions in damages across a number of areas of law, and we may be able to help you too.
A big problem surrounding medical data breaches, and one of the most concerning, is when a member of staff breaches confidentiality by accessing patient records without clinical justification.
We entrust medical employees and NHS staff to safeguard our personal medical data and only access it as part of our treatment or care. That is why it is so concerning when a member of staff is accessing patient records with no medical reasoning or no proper authority to do so.
It is sometimes hard to know what exactly they are using the data for, potentially putting individuals at risk by exposing sensitive data. In many cases, the perpetrators know the victims, which can make the distress for the victims even worse.
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