Data falling into the hands of criminals

When a data breach occurs, the impact can often be data exposure, with the information being made vulnerable to access, and potentially to misuse, by unauthorised third parties. In some of the worst cases, the information exposure can cause victims’ personal data to fall into the hands of criminals, which is a major cause for concern.

Personal information can be highly valuable to cybercriminals. In fact, there is a whole facet of cybercrime dedicated to the theft, circulation and misuse of personal data. This data can be the key to a wealth of financial gain for cybercriminals.

While cybercriminals and fraudsters are often untraceable, and so they cannot be easily held accountable, you could achieve justice for a data breach you have been affected by if a third-party company was responsible. If the errors of a data controller led to your information finding its way into the hands of criminals, this could constitute a breach of data protection law. We believe that Virgin Media is to blame for exposing the data of 900,000 customers, so if you were affected, you could be eligible to recover thousands of pounds in our group action.

How might personal data fall into the hands of criminals?

Sometimes, targeted cyberattacks can be unavoidable, and there is nothing that can be done to prevent criminals from breaching systems. However, in some cases, it is the data controllers who store, use and process the information who are to blame for it reaching the hands of criminals.

For example, it may be that human error led to the exposure of personal data, with something as simple as sending an email to the wrong person being responsible for the leaking of information to unauthorised recipients, who may then have criminal intent.

The Virgin Media data breach, however, was caused by a form of cybersecurity error. A marketing database was incorrectly configured by staff, causing it to become open to unauthorised access. Moreover, the vulnerability was not noticed for a period of ten months, leaving addresses, phones numbers and emails addresses exposed, with the potential for them to fall into the hands of criminals.

The responsibility of data controllers

Some victims of data breaches may think that data controllers are not responsible for what happens to their information after it finds its way into the hands of criminals, but this is not the case. In fact, if you are targeted with threats, scams or fraud after a third party compromises your privacy, these are factors that can be taken into account in your compensation claim against the third party.

As part of a data breach claim, you could be eligible to recover damages for any financial losses suffered as a result of criminal misuse caused by the breach. For example, this could apply to any victims of the Virgin Media data breach who were targeted with fraudulent calls and emails and consequently lost money as a result of the breach.

Your compensation claim in our Virgin Media group action

At Your Lawyers, we specialise in data breach claims and group actions, having been involved in some of the biggest cases in this area, such as the British Airways data breach GLO. Our clients can trust that we will do all we can to recover the compensation they deserve, whether they suffered distress, financial loss, or both.

Use our online form to start your No Win, No Fee Virgin Media claim today.

The content of this post/page was considered accurate at the time of the original posting and/or at the time of any posted revision. The content of this page may, therefore, be out of date. The information contained within this page does not constitute legal advice. Any reliance you place on the information contained within this page is done so at your own risk.