Welcome To The Data Leak Lawyers Blog

TalkTalk accused of continuing to neglect cybersecurity

Telecoms giant TalkTalk have been accused of continuing to neglect cybersecurity after a hacker contacted Sky news and reported website security flaws that had been left unfixed for years.

The news comes as little surprise to us as we continue to represent victims for previous TalkTalk cyber-hacks that were, in our view, entirely preventable.

According to the media reports from the end of March, the hacker found a simple scripting error that allowed him to take control of a TalkTalk.co.uk URL, and use it to trick customers that they were visiting a genuine TalkTalk website.
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Humberside Police force fined £130,000 for data protection breach

Although many of us are grateful for the help and protection our police force provide us, they are not above the law; even when it comes to the Data Protection Act.

In fact, the police service is unfortunately at the centre of a large volume of data breaches, studies have confirmed.

As a victim of a police data breach you are entitled to claim for data protection compensation – just because it’s the police does not exempt them from legal action and in this case, you can see the weight of the law applied to one force in particular who were fined £130,000.00 for a huge data breach.
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Gwent Police to be investigated over “hiding” data protection breach

Worryingly, the police occupy one of the top spots in terms of organisations at the centre of data breaches, data leaks and hacks. Victims whose data is compromised in a data protection breach deserve to be notified as soon as possible, but it’s not unheard of for an organisation to “hide” a data breach as opposed to facing up to it and dealing with it.

Reportedly, Gwent Police are to be investigated for doing just that.

News sources say that Gwent Police are being investigated for failing to inform hundreds of individuals that their data protection rights had been breached.
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NHS staff accessing neighbour’s medical records is NOT okay

There is a recent worrying trend of NHS staff being caught out snooping on people they know, or are related to, by abusing their powers to access their medical records.

Let’s be absolutely clear: it is NOT okay for any member of the NHS to access their neighbour’s medical records without good reason or due authorisation.

If you are informed that a member of the NHS staff has accessed your medical records in such a way, or if you discover it has happened, you may be entitled to claim for data protection breach compensation.
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Council data protection breaches are serious and highly sensitive

Data protection breaches committed by councils / local authorities – or the companies they outsource work to – can be unfortunately common. We advise and represent a large volume of people who have been the victim of a data breach caused by their local council, so we understand how bad they can be.

The serious council data protection breaches can cause a lot of problems for the victims, and given the nature of data that local authorities often hold – these type of breaches can be very sensitive indeed.
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Ex-soldier prosecuted for posting vulnerable adult’s sensitive data on Twitter

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has released the details of a prosecution and a police undertaking after private and sensitive information was intentionally leaked on social media platform Twitter.

William Godfrey from Kent had been in a relationship with a probation officer when he came into possession of a USB data stick containing sensitive data. He later tweeted some of the sensitive data on the USB device and threatened to release more data as well.

For their part, Surrey Police signed an undertaking to improve their data protection policies and procedures.
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Council worker fined after being caught sharing personal data on Snapchat

It’s not only NHS workers who are breaching data protection rules by accessing medical records when they shouldn’t be. There’s also a worrying trend of data being breached by the rogue actions of employees, and with data being so easily shared nowadays, we remain concerned.

With a huge amount of councils lacking proper mandatory data protection training, you could argue there are potentially thousands of employees out there who don’t know any better. This is not good enough, and these prosecutions should serve as stern warnings to both employers and employees about breaching data protection rights by illegally sharing data.
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New ICO powers to fine organisations up to £17 million

Law changes in the coming months mean that the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) enforcement powers will no longer be subject to a maximum penalty fine of only £500,000. If any person, company or organisation is found to have breached Data Protection laws in the U.K., they may find themselves slapped with a much heftier fine.

The new maximum fine can be 4% of the company’s global turnover or €20million (almost £17million); whichever is the largest.

The government is introducing this as they adopt stricter E.U. laws for data protection into U.K. legislation. Despite Brexit, the government have said that the new regulation will be implemented by May 2018 in any event.
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ICO study deems website privacy notices are too vague and inadequate

National statistics suggest that 87.9% of all adults in the U.K. use the internet. With some 45.9 million internet users, almost all Britons have access to the internet at work or for leisure.

Most of us carry a smartphone or an internet-connected device and are regularly checking the news, making purchases, watching videos, or logged in to social media. In one day, we may have visited over 20 sites, and the question is: how many of these take information about you and use it without your knowledge or consent? How many websites are truly safe?
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Multiple British intelligence and law enforcement agencies to investigate Uber hack and cover-up

Uber recently admitted to a historic data breach that compromised personal data belonging to some of its 57 million users and drivers worldwide. With six million of those users in the U.K., a significant number of people in Britain are expected to be potentially at risk of further criminal activity like fraud and digital harassment.

To make matters worse, the breach happened a year ago in October 2016, but instead of telling the authorities, Uber decided to ‘handle it’ by finding the hackers and paying them off to keep quiet.
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