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Trio of data thieves have been prosecuted and fined over £400,000

A gang of three data thieves were charged and prosecuted by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) earlier this year for unlawfully obtaining personal data at their employment, and then selling it onto claim management companies.

Andrew Minty, Jamie Leong and Michelle Craddock – all employees of Enterprise-Rent-A-Car – conspired to steal customer information so they could sell on the personal information to third party claims management companies. They sold the information on the basis that the claims management company would then use the personal data and information to make nuisance calls to the individuals.
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Two people sentenced for 12 months after leaking confidential information

If you thought breaching confidential information would earn you a slap on the wrist and nothing more, you thought wrong.

Recently, two people from a claims management company and an insurance company were jailed for 12 months following a serious data breach. Data is a sensitive and valuable commodity, and the punishments for failing to protect information should be strict.
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Many United States Special Operations Command staff had their personal information leaked in an admin error.

Around 11 GB of personal data belonging to US Special Operations Command Staff was accidentally leaked by an admin error recently.

The names, locations, salaries and the US version of National Insurance numbers were leaked in this embarrassing mistake that could literally be a serious issue of national security.
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Tens of millions of pounds of investment portfolios were revealed in the Ameriprise data leak

Not all data breaches stem from hacking; sometimes it just leaks out.

An employee working at financial planning giant Ameriprise unintentionally exposed personal information of customers, which included hundreds of investment portfolios worth tens of millions of pounds.

So you can say this is a big leak.
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Police involved after a sensitive data leak occurred at Isle of Man’s Department of Health and Social Care

Recently, the self-governed state of the Isle of Man reported that one of their government departments had been subject to a sensitive data leak.

A recording device was stolen from a secured room at the Department of Health and Social Care. The recording device was used to record sensitive meetings with children and families. The department have said that the recording was not often used and only ever done at the request of the service user.
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Rise of the fake news and its implications from a data perspective

“Banksy’s identity revealed!”

“Facebook now requires a monthly user fee.”

“Bath salts create zombies.”

Chances are, you’ve probably seen these ‘news’ headlines all over social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. These shocking revelations prompted millions of social media users to click on the links to find out more, and then they were sharing the links to warn friends and family.

However, these incredible and shocking ‘news’ articles were produced for that exact effect; rather than the production of real journalism. And it can cause problems for those who open links and share them.
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RSPCA was given a fine by the ICO for secretly screening their donors by using wealth management services.

Very recently, the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has handed out penalty fines to two well-known charities for secretly screening their donors’ personal information, and then using an external wealth management company to analyse the data to find the most generous donors and work out who would be most likely to give again.

With this effective but illegal method, the charities then used direct marketing communications to ask targeted donors to make more donations. This is, however, a breach, of data protection legislation.
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Lynda.com, owned by LinkedIn and Microsoft, fell victim to a data breach which lost 55,000 passwords

Lynda.com – a subsidiary company of LinkedIn – has recently sent out an email to 9.5 million users to warn them of a data breach.

Although not all 9.5 million users’ data was apparently breached, the online learning company has been keen to alert all users of the breach “out of an abundance of caution”. The database that was accessed included contact information and courses that the users viewed, and a LinkedIn spokesperson also revealed that around 55,000 passwords were in the breached database.
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British Heart Foundation fined for secretly screening donor’s information for targeting most generous

The British Heart Foundation Charity secretly screened thousands of their donors to target the most generous ones for further donations. As a result of their behaviour, they have been given a monetary fine by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Although the first thing that springs to mind is the fact that we’re talking about a charity here, we must always remember that no one is above the law – a fact that the ICO had to recognise when investigating their behaviour.
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IoT devices will be subject to the most cyber-attacks in 2017

CSO Online, an online community that offers data protection advice, has highlighted that smart gadget devices – like the Apple Watch, or smart boiler controls – will be the next in line in for big cyber-attacks.

As the world continues to develop technological crazes, the cybersecurity to match technological development is questionable, and attention is turning on to the Internet of Things (IoT) devices. These devices have been praised by technology enthusiasts as it gives us greater control over door locks, lights, and appliances, as well as streamlining businesses and ultimately making the user’s life a lot easier.

At the same time, it’s drawn a lot of criticism because these devices could allow opportunities for hackers to attack.
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