Welcome To The Data Leak Lawyers Blog

Third Party companies may be your biggest security risk

A large number of security risks are caused by third party vendors.

As we saw with the recent Debenhams Flowers cyber-attack, using a third party company or service provider can leave your network vulnerable to security breaches. Whilst your company could have top of the line security measures put in place, the company that handles your packaging and shipping, or the company who processes customer purchases, may have weak to non-existent security measures.

This is a clear risk.
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“Pagers are a huge cause of leaking data” – Out-of-date devices are causing the industrial industry to compromise its security

The ‘Leaking Beeps’ report shines a light on how employees from industrial environments are leaking data through their pagers.

For those industries still using pager technology to communicate with their employees, this may be very bad news to them. The report details how unsecure pagers are, and in this day and age, any cyber security flaw is always a real concern.
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“Spying in schools becoming the norm” – More than 1,000 schools use software to monitor their students online use

Child safety and security has been at the apex for years, but it’s questionable as to whether it has been the case at the expense of data protection rights.

Some data privacy campaigners argue that school surveillance goes beyond what is necessary and may actually breach data protection rights of the children.

It’s never been easier to keep an eye on people with technology these days – so are schools going too far?
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Tesco Bank criticised for its “lax” security system

Following what was dubbed as the largest cyber-attack in U.K. banking history, Tesco Bank has a lot to answer for in terms of the ‘suspicious activity’ of 40,000 bank accounts, which led to thousands being successfully hacked, and money going missing.

What originally was thought to be a hack into 20,000 customer accounts was revised down to 9,000, in which £2.5 million was stolen.
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“Netflix’s precautionary measure” – Netflix urges users to change passwords to enhance data protection

Netflix users are being urged to change their passwords following a data hack from another company. This may be a precautionary measure though, and it started when Netflix found some users were using the same passwords across accounts.

This concern was further cemented with the confirmation of another company’s data being hacked and leaked. The leaked data flags up warning signs that Netflix users who are using the same passwords across accounts may have their data breached in a sort of domino effect.
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“Password protected… or are we?” – 43 million passwords in Last.fm hacking scandal

The hack of the music streaming platform, Last.fm, reportedly happened in March 2012, but it has taken a few years to uncover its true extent.

Earlier this month, an investigation found that a staggering figure of 43,570,999 user accounts had fallen victim to the hacking; a huge number.

In terms of how this stacks up with other hacks, it’s certainly up there with the volumes of people affected.
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Can we trust The Cloud?

A huge amount of world data is stored in “the cloud.”

Cloud computing is where data and applications are remotely stored rather than being stored on your own premises. This can save on IT costs and speed up operations, but it does raise the question as to whether it is safe or not.

More public cloud platforms are offered by the likes of Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, and with so much information being stored in the cloud, can we trust that it is always safe?
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Should banks spy on our monthly income?

A Competition Watchdog has announced earlier this month that banks should share customer’s data in order help them find the best deal.

This has caused concern for privacy campaigners as our financial data is already widely shared, stored, and available anyway through various public and private bodies.

Most consumers think credit reference agencies only collect and collate data about our repayments and loans – but companies are instead cashing in on our data and selling it on, which can include all our transactions; every last one! Even something as small as paying a friend back for a meal!
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Pokemon Go – an almost potential lure for cyber attacks?

The Pokemon Go phenomenon that allows players to find and catch their favourite Pokemon out in the real world is taking over countries across the globe.

Pokemon Go is a free app on IOS and Android devices that allows players (depending on time and location) to track, find, and capture different Pokemon. The app works by using your phones GPS and clock so that you are able to locate Pokemon based on your location in real time.

The game allows players to live the fantasy of being able to experience what it would actually be like in the world of Pokemon. But experts are warning that it could leave people open to easy cyber attacks. So should we be concerned?
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One in Three admit to sticking tape over webcams, is there such a thing as being “too cautious” about online security?

Studies have revealed that around one in three people will obscure their laptop webcam with the fear of the camera being hacked or being used to watch you.

To be fair, I do it!

The study has shown that around a third of people are inclined to use a bit of tape, or bluetac, or something similar to block the view of the webcam in the worry that someone could be accessing it without their knowledge, and it begs the question: is there such a thing as being “too cautious” when it comes to online security?
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