Misuse of private information in the Virgin Media data breach

Following the Virgin Media data breach discovered in March 2020, 900,000 victims were left vulnerable to the potential misuse of private information.

The telecommunications company revealed that a database had been left unsecure for some 10 months, resulting in victims’ information being accessed on “at least one occasion” by an unknown third party.

Many victims were left understandably reeling in the wake of the event, confronted with the possibility that their information could be misused by criminals. We believe that Virgin Media should be held accountable for the risks that they have exposed the victims to, which is why we urge any affected people to join the Virgin Media group action today.

Cybercriminals and the abuse of private information

The Virgin Media data breach exposed details in a marketing database, which included phone numbers, email addresses and home addresses. According to Virgin Media, no financial or bank details were subjected to unauthorised access, but this does not eliminate the risks of misuse of private information that can lead to fraud and theft.

With email addresses, cybercriminals can enact phishing scams, posing as a reputable source and sending emails to lure unsuspecting victims into handing over further personal information. In the case of the Virgin Media data breach, fraudsters could pretend to be Virgin Media itself and thereby claim to need customers to confirm details that were lost or compromised after the data breach.

Criminals have clever ways of passing themselves off as the real article, so victims must be wary of this.

Misuse of private information and the distress it can cause

Whether the risk of data misuse materialises or not, the threat alone can be enough to cause adverse distress and/or psychological consequences for the affected victims.

It is difficult not to be anxious or stressed about the possibility of your private information being misused, and hard not to imagine the scenarios that could ensue.

Many people also fail to account for the period between the data breach occurring and the time at which it is identified. It can take weeks or even many months, as we saw in this case, for a data breach to be identified. During this time, affected victims may be oblivious and may not be on the alert for signs of the misuse of private information. As the Virgin Media breach was not realised for 10 months, the risks for affected victims has been ongoing for a significant period of time without their knowledge. This unknown element can be a source of considerable distress.

Claiming compensation for a data breach

At Your Lawyers, we are experts in data breach and group action compensation claims, representing clients in dozens of multi-party and group action claims. We are accustomed to holding companies to account in high-profile cases such as the Virgin Media data breach.

If you were affected by the Virgin Media breach, you may have been left vulnerable to the misuse of private information, and you have the right to pursue a claim for any adverse consequences of your involvement. You do not have to present evidence of material of financial damage as the GDPR recognises that emotional suffering is just as important, and this is what you could be eligible to claim for – all on a No Win, No Fee basis.

If you have been a victim of the Virgin Media data breach, you can join the action and start your legal case using our simple process that we have set up here.

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