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.
All data breaches can be capable of having a serious impact on victims, but the severity of a breach generally increases according to how much information is exposed, and the sensitivity of that information. Patient and employee data breaches, therefore, constitute some of the most harmful data security incidents that a victim can fall prey to.
Your Lawyers, as leading specialists in data breach law, have seen the damage that can be caused when personal data is compromised or exposed. Everyone should feel safe and secure in their hospitals or workplaces, but negligence of data protection principles can severely endanger people’s privacy.
In fact, all data controllers have a legal obligation to protect the personal information they process and hold. Where they fail to do so, they may be liable to pay damages to those affected. Making a data breach claim can allow you to recover the compensation you deserve, so contact our team for free, no-obligation advice if you think you may have a claim to make.
In a data breach earlier this year involving Trafford Council, the personal information of residents had been publicly exposed. Personal details were reportedly taken as part of a resident survey, but the private information was understood to have not been redacted when the council sent a Freedom of Information request response to another resident.
Errors such as this seem to have become a common trait of council data breaches, with employees making needless mistakes that could be corrected with a few checks, and with greater attention to the appropriate procedures. Overall, the trend of human error data breaches at local authorities would suggest that there are inherent problems when it comes to data protection.
A lack of awareness in respect of data protection and cybersecurity is simply unacceptable in this day and age, in which the digitisation of personal information has the potential to make it a more accessible target for cybercriminals. While organisations bear the overall responsibility for compliance with data protection law, individual employees also have a role to play in eliminating data security risks.
Workplace data breach compensation claims can be one of the most severe types of privacy legal cases that we take on for victims on a No Win, No Fee basis.
The reason for this is that the nature of the information that can be exposed can be personal and sensitive, and it could be voluminous. This can mean that the impact for the victim can be substantial, which is why these kinds of legal cases can be so serious.
At Your Lawyers – The Data Leak Lawyers – as leading privacy claims experts, we represent a lot of people for workplace data cases. You can speak to the team for free, no-obligation advice here now.
Educational institutions have been targeted by cyberattacks with increasing frequency in the past few months, so the risk to the private information that is held by schools appears to be pronounced. In this climate of hacks and ransomware, it is important that high schools are doing everything they possibly can to protect the sensitive information of students, staff and parents, or there could be an increasing number of high school data breaches.
All schools hold a wealth of information about their pupils, from home addresses to medical information. It is important that teachers can access these details when necessary for the purposes of safeguarding and student welfare, but this also means that schools have an obligation to manage and process this information securely.
If you or your child has been affected by a high school data breach, you may be eligible to make a data breach claim for any harm caused. Where schools are responsible for the exposure of private information, they must be held accountable. Claiming compensation can be a route to ensuring that justice is achieved.
Remote working has been a key security focus for some companies for a number of years, but the coronavirus pandemic has led to many more businesses adopting homeworking as a long-term practice. For some, remote working has longevity beyond social distancing restrictions. However, it can come with cybersecurity concerns, such that businesses must ensure they are effectively managing the risks of remote workers exposing data.
As well as the external cybersecurity threats to company servers, there is also a risk that undisciplined employees may make mistakes when they are no longer working in a controlled environment. Even the simplest of errors or oversights could allow sensitive information to become vulnerable.
Unfortunately, when the transition was made to remote working, some companies failed to make the cybersecurity adjustments required. Going forward, it is important that every company adapts their data protection strategies to the demands of remote working, or they may risk information exposure.
As patients, we trust that our data is held securely by healthcare organisations, and that medical professionals will only access and use our information when absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, hospital data snooping does occur, as some healthcare staff view patient information without authorisation or consent.
Whether intentional or unintentional, data snooping is a practice that all healthcare staff must steer clear of, particularly due to the sensitivity of medical records. It is understandably worrying for victims to learn that their information has been subjected to unauthorised access, as there could be malicious intent behind the user’s actions. When healthcare staff abuse or take advantage of their data access privileges in this way, it can constitute a breach of data protection law.
If you believe that your privacy has been violated in this way, you could be eligible to claim compensation for the harm caused. Contact us for free, no-obligation advice now if you think you may have a claim to make.
We are now two years on from the discovery of a mass snooping scandal in Greater Manchester involving Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust where the unauthorised access to medical records affected some 2,000 people.
We represent clients for cases in this serious abuse of access by what is understood to be more than one employee at the Trust in question. We represent clients for cases where their wider medical records were accessed during their treatment by people who did not need to access their data, and had no right or reason to. We have also been recommending that our clients check their medical records too as a number of inaccuracies have been identified also.
This all suggests that the practice of medical records data protection and organisation has been poor at the Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust. We continue to represent people for data breach compensation claims, and you can still join our group action for the mass snooping event. You can also speak to our team for free, no-obligation advice about general issues over unauthorised access to medical records as well.
Victims of a workplace data protection breach could be entitled to bring claims for compensation, and we will look at one such event involving Portland Business and Financial Solutions.
Given that employers and companies involved in employment matters often store and process particularly personal and sensitive data, the impact of a breach, leak or hack can be substantial.
Your Lawyers – as leading Data Leak Lawyers – represent thousands of people for privacy compensation claims. We have done so for over seven years, which is a lot longer than most other firms out there. With over £1m recovered just for mainly individual data victims to date, and over 50 group and multi-party data actions launched, we know what it means to be experts in this niche and complex area of law.
According to recent research, pension scheme data breach numbers have seen a significant increase in the past year or so. A study by Sackers, a specialist pension law firm, has reportedly highlighted fundamental data security issues in the industry, as the survey of businesses reportedly found that some 35% of trustees and employers had reported data breaches to their pension schemes.
The study comes not so long after the Now: Pensions data breach was revealed to the public at the end of 2020, which involved the exposure of approximately 30,000 customers’ private information. This is an action that we represent victims for on a No Win, No Fee basis.
The results of the study may lead to some much greater scrutiny of the pensions industry, and companies may need to reconsider their approach to data protection going forward. Our team here at Your Lawyers, as leading, specialist data breach lawyers, is concerned to see these figures.
In the modern digital world, it is rare that companies rely solely on their own internal IT capabilities to operate their computers and networks, instead engaging the services of IT companies to help them set up effective digital systems and often to provide good security for these systems. Even companies hired for the specific purpose of cybersecurity can neglect vulnerabilities. If this happens, an IT security company data breach may occur.
The element of third-party security risks can be one that companies overlook, but no data controller can evade its ultimate responsibility for a data breach. Whether the incident occurred due to a third-party provider or the company itself, those affected by data breaches could be eligible to claim compensation for any harm caused.
EasyJet admits data of nine million hacked
British Airways data breach: How to claim up to £6,000 compensation
Are you owed £5,000 for the Virgin Media data breach?
Virgin Media faces £4.5 BILLION in compensation payouts
BA customers given final deadline to claim compensation for data breach
Shoppers slam Morrisons after loyalty points stolen
Half a million customers can sue BA over huge data breach
Lawyers accuse BA of 'swerving responsibility' for data breach
The biggest data breaches of 2020
Fill out our quick call back form below and we'll contact you when you're ready to talk to us.
