"We cover news and updates from the digital world with information on the latest legislation, high profile cases and changes in the online industry."
We specialise in representing victims for data breach compensation claims.
Information on how we handle your data is available in our Privacy Policy.
When we look at important topics such as NHS cybersecurity, we usually approach it from the perspective of the victims, given that we’re data breach compensation lawyers.
GDPR ensures that there’s an important duty on all organisations – including the NHS – to take steps to protect the data that they store and process. Their duties are clear, and the punishments that can be issued by the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) are also clear, and they can be substantial.
But what about the victims? What can they do when it’s their data that has been exposed or misused? What are their rights?
If you’re one of the 2,000 or so Greater Manchester NHS patients whose medical records have been accessed inappropriately, you may be entitled to make a claim for NHS data breach compensation.
The Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust has written to patients affected by this scandal. An investigation that followed a complaint revealed that thousands of people’s medical records had been accessed by a number of NHS employees without need or authority to do so.
Across an 18-month period, some records had been subject to a single access event, whereas others had been accessed on a number of occasions. It’s yet to be confirmed which staff are responsible for the access events as well.
We’re taking compensation claims forward on a No Win, No Fee basis for victims of the Charing Cross Gender Identity Clinic email leak.
The GIC sent two separate emails to groups of around 900 individuals per email with information relating to an art competition. Unfortunately, instead of using proper mailing software, it appears that the clinic simply used the “CC” (carbon copy) function. This has resulted in recipients’ information – at least email addresses, and possibly names – being leaked to all other recipients of the email.
This isn’t the first time an email data leak of this nature has happened. We continue to fight for the rights of victims affected by the infamous 56 Dean Street Clinic leak which was a similar incident.
Concerns have been raised about private cybersecurity firms putting the NHS at risk. We see NHS data breach claims all the time, so we can tell you from first-hand experience just how bad the impact can be for the victims, and that’s why this is an important subject to look at.
As the NHS continues to struggle under considerable financial constraints and budget cuts, outsourcing cybersecurity could look like an attractive option. But there has to be specialists in the NHS who understand the nature of the risks being faced, and too much outsourcing can do more harm than good.
There’s a reason that a huge proportion of the cases that we take forward involve the healthcare sector. They are a clear target for criminals, and the nature of medical data being so personal and sensitive can have a far greater impact on the victim.
A 12-month suspension has been handed to a senior nurse caught snooping on medical records during the course of her employment with University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust.
It’s understood that a total of 13 charges were brought against Carol Ann Rodda who was found to have been improperly accessing records over a period of nine months. The data she accessed included that of family members and colleagues.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has had to deal with a number of cases where healthcare staff have been caught snooping on medical records. It can be a common problem, and it’s one where the victims can be entitled to make a claim for data breach compensation.
Healthcare staff data breach incidents appear to be on the rise following one recent study indicating that more than half of incidents stem from the actions of staff themselves.
The results of this particular research come as no surprise to us. Many of the data breach compensation claims we take forward involve the healthcare sector. On top of that, many of those cases have been caused because of the actions of staff themselves.
From leaks to snooping, and hacks to a lack of security when it comes to remote working, employees can be the weakest link. And to use the sentiment of an old adage: organisations really are only as strong as their weakest link.
There has been a spate of NHS fax data breach incidents as a result of a fax number used within the healthcare system that’s similar to an unrelated one.
A hotel group that reportedly has a similar fax number has contacted the Corporate Information Governance Team at NHS England to report the issue. As a result, NHS England has reminded GP surgeries and pharmacists about the importance of making sure data is sent to the correct recipient.
These kinds of NHS data breach cases are so easy to avoid, yet they often happen so easily.
We can help you make a claim for compensation if you were a victim of the 2018 Well Pharmacy data breach incident.
Some 24,000 people were affected by the breach when an email had been sent out inadvertently contained an attachment. The attachment contained personal and potentially sensitive data about the thousands of victims affected.
Email data leaks are one of the more common types of data breach compensation claims we deal with. These kinds of incidents are entirely preventable and should never happen in the first place.
If you have been the victim of a HIV status data breach, you may be entitled to make a claim for compensation with No Win, No Fee representation.
We can tell you from years of experience that HIV status data breach incidents can be absolutely devastating and can have a lifelong impact on the victim. The legal action that we’re helping a large number of the 56 Dean Street HIV status data breach victims for is still ongoing, and the evidence and witness statements from our clients says it all.
Anyone who has suffered as a victim of a HIV status data breach may be eligible to claim compensation, and we’re here to help.
We have a legal action under way for NHS Digital data breach compensation because of the 150,000 patients whose opt-out instructions were not honoured.
The patients, who had all registered for a “type 2 Opt-out” of their data being shared for things like auditing, could be entitled to claim for data breach compensation as part of our action. As a result of a coding error in the software used by GPs to record their instructions to op-out resulting in the objections not being recorded and shared properly the patients have had their private and sensitive medical information passed on.
If you have been affected by the issue and you want to claim, we can help.
There are masses of medical data stored on servers around the world and unfortunately hackers manage to find ways into these storage systems and gain access to this highly sensitive data.
This can be particularly relevant in the U.S., where their healthcare system means records are managed by a number of private organisations, or sourced to private entities whose responsibility is to manage medical records for several healthcare institutes. Although such ease of access can be beneficial from a medical perspective, the danger is the growing exposure of medical data to being hacked.
Read More
In recent years, the healthcare industry has been a big target for cyber-hackers, and there have been some huge cases reported. The healthcare industry leads the way in terms of the highest number of breaches and leaks in the U.K. and in other countries too, and in one example we’ll take a look at here, a hospital suffered a medical data breach that reportedly affected some 30,000 patients.
A medical breach involving 30,000 patients is absolutely monumental!
Read More
Speak to our team now for help and advice.
Fill out our quick claim form below and we’ll contact
you when you’re ready to talk to us.
All fields marked * are required.
