Advice about risks following the Virgin Media Data Breach

In response to the Virgin Media data breach, Your Lawyers has been offering affected customers advice about risks that may have been induced by the exposure of their personal information.

In March of last year, Virgin Media revealed that an error had led to the exposure of 900,000 people’s data, all of which was held in an insecure database for ten months before the issue was rectified.

While Virgin Media has assured victims that financial details and passwords were not compromised, phone numbers, email addresses and home addresses of customers were accessed at least once by an unauthorised, unknown third-party.

Potential risks of the Virgin Media data breach

Although the details involved in the breach may appear to lessen the risks at play, it must be stressed that contact details still represent powerful tools to cybercriminals and fraudsters.

Indeed, while Virgin Media data breach victims have not had their financial details exposed, the risk of fraud is still present. For example, fraudsters may use customers’ email addresses to execute phishing scams; this involves a scammer sending an email in the guise of a reputable company or individual, claiming that they require you to confirm your bank account details or credit card number in order to hoodwink you into handing over access to your money. In the case of the Virgin Media data breach, fraudsters may even pose as Virgin Media, claiming that information was lost or needs to be updated following the data breach.

In addition, it is possible that a third party with unauthorised possession of Virgin Media people’s data may choose to sell the contact details on to other irreputable businesses or individuals. They could then bombard you with marketing materials that you have not consented to receiving.

Advice about risks – what you can do

As regards to our advice about risks, it is important for each affected individual to remain vigilant in the wake of the Virgin Media data breach.

Though dangerous, phishing scams can be quite unsophisticated attempts at fraud, and they can be recognised fairly easily if the recipient takes care. If you open an email and think that the source seems dubious, or that the language appears unprofessional and unauthoritative, do not follow any of the instructions the sender gives you, and make sure to mark the email as suspicious and delete it.

Another important piece of advice about risks of phishing scams is this – never click on the link in a suspicious email! Such links could completely break down the cybersecurity features of your device and could contain malicious software.

It is also vital to remember that reputable companies, whether they are consumer businesses or banks, should never ask you to hand over your details in this way because of security risks, so you should not trust any sender who requests such information via email.

Starting a compensation claim

While a compensation claim may not mitigate the risks of a data breach, it can allow you to achieve some recompense for the distress and/or financial damage that you may have suffered as a result of having your information exposed.

As a victim of the Virgin Media data breach, you can sign-up for a No Win, No Fee legal case by heading over to the main section of the website here.

We are a leading law firm in both Data Breach law and Group Actions, so we possess the expertise and drive to help lead your claim to a successful conclusion.

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.