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GCHQ set to investigate the Dixons Carphone data breach

GCHQ is set to investigate the Dixons Carphone data breach that resulted in the debit and credit card information for almost six million people being exposed.

The Data Leak Lawyers have already been approached for help as a result of the data breach, and the team are available to advise anyone who comes forward for advice.

The GCHQ (the Government Communications Headquarters) is reportedly going to investigate Dixons Carphone’s data breach which is said to have occurred last year but has only now come to light.

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Dixons Carphone data breach advice

We’re offering advice to victims of the monumental Dixons Carphone data breach. The breach reportedly involves the data for almost six million payment cards and the exposure of over a million personal records.

The Data Leak lawyers have assessed the incident and are prepared to offer advice and No Win, No Fee representation for anyone who has been affected by the breach.

Our own investigations into the data breach have commenced, and you can contact our team for further assistance.
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Uber data breach was a lesson in how NOT to handle a cyberattack

The Uber data breach was a clear lesson in how NOT to handle a cyberattack. When the hackers contacted Uber by email, back in November 2016, they demanded a six-figure sum in order to destroy the wealth of data they’d stolen so news of the breach would quietly fade away once the bribe had been paid.

As opposed to dealing with the data breach in the appropriate way, Uber decided to pay-off the hackers and cover the breach up. A payment of $100,000 was reportedly made to the two hackers, and employees responsible for the security issue passed the whole thing off as a “bug bounty” program, which is where hackers are offered money to try and find weaknesses.

In reality, they were simply hacked, and Uber have not only paid the heavy price of the bribe, but also the cost of a handling the crisis thereafter.
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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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Victims of Equifax data breach receiving letters containing incorrect personal data

A number of victims of the Equifax data breach have been receiving letters containing incorrect personal data, according to media reports; further exacerbating the massive data breach that has affected some 700,000 people in the UK alone.

According to Equifax, determining the best addresses for some victims had been “complex” and had resulted in letters being sent out that are thoughts to have contained erroneous information.

As time has passed, the Equifax data breach seems to have worsened and worsened, and this is yet another problem adding to the pile.

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UK Anti-Doping Agency (UKAD) hit by cyber-attack

The UK Anti-Doping Agency (UKAD) was hit by a cyber-attack at the end of March. The agency holds a wealth of data about thousands of professional footballers and Olympic athletes for anti-doping monitoring and compliance.

The data they hold includes medical records and drugs that are used by athletes in accordance with exemption rules.

In 2016, the World Anti-Doping Agency was the subject to a cyber espionage leak that released the classified medical records and drug testing documentation for high-profile athletes, which included drugs used under exemption rules.
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Is council data protection and cybersecurity quality a postcode lottery?

Experts have looked in to the differences between councils and local authority services and compared the quality of the cybersecurity and their data protection procedures and protocols. One worrying trend is the fact that there are some huge differences between different councils when it comes to practically all aspects of data security.

This issue means that, in reality, the quality of data protection and cybersecurity can be somewhat of a postcode lottery. There is no single or uniform approach, which is a really worrying aspect.
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Researchers say catastrophic data breach is inevitable by 2021

According to researchers at the Raytheon and the Ponemon Institute, a staggering 80% of IT and cybersecurity experts believe we may be headed for a data breach of “catastrophic” proportions in the next few years.

The combination of more and more devices connected to the internet, together with the increasing risk of cyberattacks, as well as the growing sophistication of the attacks we’re seeing, is allowing cyber-hackers the perfect platform to do some real damage.

On top of this, with organisations still not taking their cybersecurity responsibilities seriously enough, unless things change, we could be headed for disaster very soon.
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Travel site Orbitz hit by probable cyber-attack: 880k credit card data at risk

There’s been yet another major data protection breach, this time involving Obitz – a subsidiary of Expedia Inc – who say that the data of some 880,000 accounts may have been compromised in a cyber-hack.

Earlier this month, travel site Orbitz determined that an attacker may have accessed data stored on a computer system used by consumers, and accessed a separate tool used by businesses. It’s believed that data submitted in 2016 was exposed, but the discovery of the breach only happened in March this year, meaning data may have been exposed for a prolonged period of time
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NHS Healthcare systems most vulnerable to data protection breaches caused by hackers

A recent study concluded that, in January, almost 40% of data protection breaches in a particular healthcare sector were caused by hacking.

Although the figures are from one study, and the results are relevant for the area of the study, the risk of NHS Trusts, doctors and hospitals falling victim to a hack is a serious and ongoing concern.

The 2017 “WannaCry” cyber-hack that specifically targeted older and more outdated systems hit the NHS hard. In fact, the UK faced a practical crisis in the immediate fallout of the hack.
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