Welcome To The Data Leak Lawyers Blog

Victim awarded £75,000 after police disclose her details without consent

A woman received a £75,000 settlement after Greater Manchester Police disclosed her personal information without her consent.

In 2014 the woman agreed that details of the domestic abuse she suffered from a former partner could be used in training sessions for officers and support agencies on the basis that her information would be anonymous.

It was later discovered, however, that her identity and medical history was disclosed in full. This was also disclosed to a wider audience. A recording of a 999 call was played as well, where she had called for help after an assault.
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Employees of Google, Samsung and Apple suffer data breach

Employee accounts of Google, Samsung, and Apple along with other tech firms have apparently had their accounts hacked.

This information comes from the Khronos website. Supposedly the hackers hacked into a forum that was often used by the developers for things such as game development. Others that are allegedly victims of the hack include Toshiba, Sony Ericsson, IBM, EA, Intel, Panasonic and VMWare.

More companies may have had employee accounts stolen as well.
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O2 Customer Information on sale on the “dark web”

Its been confirmed that O2 customer data has been found for sale on the dark web which experts believe the data came from a hack several years ago from a gaming website called XSplit.

The 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.

Despite being told not to, a large percentage of online users reuse the same login details for numerous sites, making them especially vulnerable to having their data hacked. The hackers accessed customer’s personal information such as phone numbers, emails, and date-of-birth. This is all personal information that can be used for fraudulent purposes.
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Ransomware breakthrough software: CryptoDrop!

Scientists in Florida have developed software to stop ransomware in its tracks, sources from the BBC have confirmed. According to reports, the software called “CryptoDrop” can detect malware and stop it in its tracks.

This is big news, especially for businesses who have reportedly lost millions in paying ransomware demands because it’s less costly just to pay up and move on as opposed to hours lost getting systems back online which cost organisations even more money.
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Can the police be trusted to handle our data securely?

Privacy rights campaigners, Big Brother Watch, have produced a damning insight in to the extent of data breaches committed by the police in the UK.

According to the report, 10 data breaches are committed every week, with some 2,315 being committed between June 2011 and December 2015.

In the wake of government calls for increasing powers for authorities to access private and personal information, the worry about data safety in the hands of the very people responsible for continual breaches is a cause for concern.
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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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Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly amongst those who cover their laptop webcam and mic with tape

Social media giant and Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly amongst those who cover their webcams with tape over fears of cyber snooping.

We recently blogged about the statistic that one in three of us cover our webcams in fear that they could be hacked or accessed to snoop on what we’re doing. In a photo shown on the BBC, Mark Zuckerberg celebrates Instagram reaching its five hundred million monthly milestone, and those with a keen eye have spotted the Mac in the background that appears to have tape over the camera.
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Greenwich University suffers second data breach in so-called “revenge hack”

We’re already acting for a number of individuals who have been affected by the Greenwich University data leak from earlier this year, when it was discovered that personal student information was accessible online. Our Data Leak Lawyers are already representing victims of that breach, but now a second significant data breach has occurred as well.

Medical conditions; personal conversation records; full names and contact information; coursework; email account information; and student disability information is amongst data that was available online following a so-called “revenge hack” from a former disgruntled student.
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Data Breaches and the panic they cause!

As soon as you hear of a data breach, most people get concerned; and rightly so.

Whether it’s the bank you use, a social networking site you have an account for, or a telecoms provider, it’s always a cause for concern to hear that information has been hacked or leaked from an organisation that you are associated with in some way.

But with huge breaches like the recent MySpace, Tumblr, and LinkedIn ones comes an element of panic that causes things to get lost in translation, and the result is other organisations getting wrongly dragged in to breaches.
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Is the Myspace hack the biggest hack out there, and should you be concerned?

Some 427 million passwords were accessed as part of the Myspace hack, and although hardly anyone uses Myspace these days, there is still a very big threat to your online security.

So, should you be concerned?

If you had a MySpace account before 2013 then your (probably redundant) account details have possibly been hacked, and if you use the same passwords and log in details to this day, and the same email address, there is cause to be very concerned indeed.
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