The dangers of ignoring cyberattacks

In order to ensure that they are effectively protecting personal information, all data controllers must constantly monitor potential cybersecurity threats, making use of specialist resources and employees to keep private information secure. However, despite the legal obligations they are under, some companies try to get away with ignoring cyberattacks or the risks they pose, and their negligence can amount to a breach of data protection law.

Data protection is all about prevention, with data controllers putting security measures in place in advance and consistently checking their reliability. In the case of the Virgin Media data breach, we believe that the company’s prevention strategy may have been insufficient and may, therefore, have allowed the incident to occur.

As many as 900,000 people were affected by the Virgin Media data breach, a figure that demonstrates how much damage can be done when organisations fail to protect personal information. We believe that those affected could be entitled to thousands of pounds in compensation, which is why we are taking on data breach claims in our group action against the company.

What are the consequences of ignoring cyberattacks?

There is no room for complacency when it comes to data protection, as even the slightest of errors or vulnerabilities may cause data to be compromised. In the worst of cases, ignoring cyberattacks or potential cybersecurity threats can allow malicious criminals to steal information. Such data theft can often give way to misuse, with some fraudsters using personal data as means of targeting victims with scams and fraud.

For the victims of data breaches, ignoring cyberattacks is never an option, as it is necessary to be vigilant of any potential scam calls or emails, and of any unauthorised transactions on their accounts.

The responsibility of Virgin Media

While Virgin Media may not be responsible for deliberately ignoring cyberattacks, we believe that the company failed to effectively monitor and deal with system vulnerabilities. You could argue that they are guilty of ignoring the risks of cybersecurity threats, given what had happened in the breach that we are pursuing compensation claims for.

In this case, a configuration error is understood to have caused the incident. This should have been prevented in the first place, never mind being corrected as soon as possible. Instead, the affected database was left open to unauthorised access for a ten-month period before the vulnerability was identified. For us, this raises questions over how effectively the company and its employees were keeping track of the security of their systems.

Make your Virgin Media claim

As a result of Virgin’s inaction, we believe that those affected by the data breach could be entitled to claim compensation. If you have been adversely impacted and want to see that Virgin Media are held accountable, you can sign up to our group action via the online form today.

As specialists in data breach claims and group actions, we have been involved in a number of high-profile data breach cases and are currently also play a role in actions against Equifax and British Airways. It is important to us that as many data breach victims as possible can access the justice they deserve, which is why we are offering No Win, No Fee representation to all eligible Virgin Media claimants.

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