A lack of data training can cause data breaches

A lack of data training can be a contributing factor to data breaches such as the Virgin Media data breach earlier this year. This article will look at the effect a lack of data training could have on such breaches and why such training is, therefore, very important.

The number of data breaches occurring has increased in recent years. According to the Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2020: Almost half of businesses (46%) and a quarter of charities (26%) report having cyber security breaches or attacks in the last 12 months. This shows how increasingly important it is for businesses to provide employees with proper data training so they can minimalise the risk of a data breach stemming from an employee error.

Training employees on data handling does not completely minimise the risk of a data breach, and there are still other factors to consider. This includes weak software that does not protect information and could allow cybercriminals to be able to easily hack into databases. Still, a lack of data training is often a significant issue for companies when it comes to data protection breaches.

Lack of data training is no excuse

In an age where everything is digital, it has never been more important for companies to protect sensitive data or face the consequences if they fail to do so.

Data breaches are commonly caused by human error, be it a human-related software error, mistakenly emailing personal data, or even an incident of physical loss of information such as files containing customer’s details being lost in public. This can happen even with data training in place, but a lack of data training could lead to greater instances of data breaches for a company, and can lead to a greater impact.

It is important for companies who suffer data breaches, particularly from a lack of data training, to be held accountable for their actions, and this is where we come in. As a specialist data breach law firm, we represent victims across many data breach group actions, including for the Virgin Media data breach.

Virgin Media data breach

Data breaches that are down to employee error, such as the Virgin Media breach that was discovered earlier this year, could possibly have been preventable with better training and procedures in place.

The Virgin Media data breach was the result of an ‘incorrectly configured’ database that arose from an employee error. The breach affected over 900,000 victims and left their information available freely online for 10 months between April 2019 and February 2020. Further investigation found that the data had been accessed by an unknown third-party at least once.

It is thought that, in this instance, the correct data breach training could have prevented the database from being ‘incorrectly configured’ and thus prevented a huge data breach.

Claim for the Virgin Media data breach today

If you have been affected by the Virgin Media data breach, you could be eligible to claim with us today. Victims of the Virgin Media data breach could be eligible to claim up to £5,000 compensation, meaning an estimated total £4.5 billion pay-out.

Your Lawyers has launched a Group Action Claim for the data breach and urge any victims to join the claim as soon as possible. It is vital for those affected to step forward and make a claim in order to hold Virgin Media to account for their actions.

To begin your compensation claim, fill out a form on our website here.

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