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.
Any incidents involving medical data storage breaches can be serious, and they can easily happen as more and more of the healthcare sector is digitised and is accessible online.
It goes without saying that any and all data should be stored safely and securely, especially when it can be accessible online. Different organisations (be they Trusts, GPs, or insurers) that are involved in the healthcare sector may store data in different ways. Some may do it themselves, and some may use third-party hosting services. But whatever the services used, protection must be the priority.
If a medical data breach occurs as a result of a storage incident, victims should know that they can be entitled to make a claim for compensation.
The new legislation that came into force in May 2018 could lead to many incidents and violations, and this includes issues involving a school GDPR breach.
We must remember that all organisations – no matter how big or how small, or whether they’re private or public – are responsible for complying with the GDPR. For schools, not only is the duty there, but we must also account for the fact that the data subjects are young; and therefore vulnerable individuals.
Although schools will need to have adapted in similar ways that businesses have, they cannot take for granted the extra care required given that it’s children involved. If a breach occurs, victims should know their rights.
You can be entitled to make a claim for compensation if you have been the victim of a university cyber breach and your data has been misused or exposed.
It’s important to remember that higher education facilities like universities hold a wealth of information about a lot of people. It can include the usual personal information as well as financial data for fees, and medical and domestic data to ensure that the needs to students are met. When it comes to mitigating circumstances, the information that could be held for students can include some incredibly personal and sensitive information.
Universities can also be a major target for cyber criminals because of the research data that they hold. The information for students and employees can easily get caught up in such an attack as well.
When it comes to avoiding what can be incredibly damaging healthcare information data breaches, prevention over reaction is absolutely key.
In fact, just this morning, we’ve heard about the Labour Party reportedly being hit by a “large and sophisticated cyber-attack”. Our understanding is that the attack on its digital platforms failed, and the reason for the failure is reportedly due to the party’s “robust security systems”.
So, there you have it. Just as we’re about to give you our expert advice about the need for the healthcare sector to focus on prevention, we have just seen what may be the perfect example to compare it to. The long and short of it all is that all organisations must take all reasonable steps to ensure their cybersecurity is robust in order to prevent events taking place.
We’ve said before that a part of the reason that we’re involved in the Group Action for the BA data protection breach is because we believe that the case for compensation is strong.
That’s why we have dedicated a great deal of our time and resources to the action. We have been fighting for the rights of those affected by the BA data breach, working tirelessly on a No Win, No Fee basis for our valued clients.
We’ve talked a lot about how better data protection practices and more robust security could have prevented this breach. We’ve also talked about the fact that GDPR and earlier breaches like the Equifax hack and the Ticketmaster breach should have been warning enough for British Airways to have taken action. Had they have taken action, they could have prevented this colossal incident. And doing so could have been very simple, and incredibly cost-effective.
According to credit-reference agency Experian, there are increasing incidents of fraudsters targeting first-time buyers, and some of it can be related to data breaches.
As a firm of expert data breach compensation lawyers, this news doesn’t come as a surprise to us at all. First-time buyers can be vulnerable to the kinds of tricks and scams that criminals can pull off, particularly because of being thrown into the world of owning a home for the first time. Criminals could pose as a number of organisations or parties, and they could use information from data breaches to convince people that they’re the real deal.
This kind of problem demonstrates how bad a simple data breach can actually be for a victim when criminals use even small bits of seemingly “harmless” data that has been exposed in a breach to do serious damage.
Digitalisation is generally seen as a good thing, but in a day and age when data breaches are so common, should we be concerned when it comes to increasing use of NHS digital technologies?
Like many other industries, the growing use of technology can be great. We can reduce costs and wastage, increase efficiency, and make communication – which is vital – slick and smooth. When it comes to the healthcare industry, increasing use of technology and digitalisation could arguably save lives and improve patient care.
But with increasing digitalisation comes increasing vulnerability for technology to be exploited. Without adequate defences in place, it can be open season for criminals and fraudsters.
Last month, the Tesco parking app data leak was discovered by The Register, and it involved the exposure of tens of millions of number plate images.
It was one of those cases of information that had been accidentally left exposed, and was accessible to anyone who came across it. It was also a clear example of one of the issues we’ve been talking about lately, which is the weaknesses that come with outsourcing information services.
Your defence is only as good as your weakest link, and when there are more links in the chain that arise from outsourcing, data controllers need to be vigilant.
People asking whether they should be worried about a data breach is somewhat of a common question in today’s age of almost continual leaks and hacks.
In some ways, our society has become a bit numb to news of yet another breach hitting the headlines given how common they are. Whilst we don’t want to panic people, it’s important for us to shed some light on the dark side of the internet and explain why people should be worried when they fall victim to a data breach incident.
It’s also important to know what rights you have when it comes to compensation. When you understand about what can happen to your valuable information, it can be distressing.
It probably sounds rather obvious that NHS cybersecurity can be a matter for life and death, but when it comes to data breach compensation claims, medical incidents are still one of the most common.
You would therefore think that it should be an absolute priority, but as more and more of the healthcare system becomes digitalised, there can be more doorways for hackers to get in. At the same time, the healthcare sector is an obvious target given the wealth of personal and sensitive information that’s stored and processed within it.
Victims of a healthcare cybersecurity incident can be entitled to make a claim for medical data breach compensation. But we cannot ignore the fact that such incidents can mean physical harm to patients as well, and then it’s more than a case for the distress caused by the loss of control of private information.
EasyJet admits data of nine million hacked
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