Category: About the Data Breach
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.
An employee data breach- victims and wrongdoers
In an employee data breach, the impact to both the employers and the employees can be severe, due to the long-term damage which the exposure of data can provoke.
Employees represent a two-sided data protection risk to businesses: on the one hand, employees can be responsible for the ‘human error’ data breaches that plague our headlines, or they could themselves be the victims at the centre of a data breach.
As such, an internal, employee data breach could be no less damaging to a company’s reputation and expenses than a customer data breach, so employee data protection should never be taken lightly. In terms of the Virgin Media data breach, this is a pivotal factor to consider.
Make sure to join the Virgin Media Group Action before it is too late
Make sure that you join the Virgin Media Group Action as soon as you can. There may be some big developments taking place in 2021, and you do not want to miss your chance to claim.
There are plenty of good reasons to claim, and with our No Win, No Fee representation on offer, what have you got to lose?
As a leading firm of consumer action and data breach compensation experts, we are here to help. Starting your legal case is simple and easy with our website here, and as the representatives of thousands of clients in dozens of group and multi-party actions, we are well established to help you now.
The Virgin Media data leak and what 2021 holds
The Virgin Media data leak was one of many that took place in 2020 as we continue to see a huge surge in breaches and cyberattacks taking place.
We are now more than two years on from the introduction of the GDPR that ought to have acted as a clear deterrent to avoid these kinds of avoidable data leaks taking place. Despite the power of the new regulations, we continue to see a substantial number of breaches, and we are left wondering if the situation will ever relent.
One key thing to know is that the GDPR can empower victims of a data breach to be able to claim compensation. Although the deterrent element of the law may not be working as effectively as it should be, the power for consumers to take action remains in place.
Compensation claims for corporate data breach victims – Virgin Media
It is important for corporate data breach victims to make a compensation claim. In the case of the Virgin Media data breach, we are fighting for justice for a large group of victims on a No Win, No Fee basis.
Many victims may not know that they can even make a claim, or they may be scared to take on huge corporations. That’s where we can help – we know the distress and upset that can be caused when your personal information is involved in a data breach, which is why we take claims forward on a No Win, No Fee basis for eligible clients.
Corporate data breach victims, such as the 900,000 victims of the Virgin Media data breach, can be legally entitled to make compensation claims. When corporations breach data protection laws, it is your right to claim compensation and hold the corporation to account; to bring justice for yourself and for the other victims. By making compensation claims, you can also help to make sure that the company takes data breaches seriously in the hopes that they put systems in place to prevent further breaches as well.
Be wary of fraudsters posing as Virgin Media employees
If you are one of the 900,000 victims affected by the Virgin Media data breach, it is vital that you watch out for scams. You could be targeted by fraudsters posing as Virgin Media employees who are attempting to successfully scam you with cold calls and phishing emails.
The Virgin Media data breach affected 900,000 victims, with the majority being broadband and landline customers and a smaller percentage being Virgin Mobile customers. The breach was discovered by an independent security researcher TurgenSec who then informed Virgin Media. The telecoms giant has since stated the breach was a result of an ‘incorrectly configured’ database.
If you have been affected by this data breach, you could be eligible to make a compensation claim today for the distress caused by the loss of control of your personal information. You could also claim for financial losses incurred as a result of the breach, or from scams from fraudsters posing as Virgin Media employees if this has happened and it is linked directly to the breach event.
Virgin Media incident and how you can claim for a human error data breach
When an incident occurs, it is often termed as a “human error data breach”, and this term has been applied to the Virgin Media data leak uncovered earlier this year.
Human error data breaches occur regularly and can cause a great deal of harm, which is why they are important to highlight. It is vital to know that you can claim compensation for a human error data breach, and we will explain this here today.
Data breaches of any nature can be extremely serious, putting individuals at risk by exposing their highly sensitive personal data. The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) is in place to protect individual’s data and ensure organisations face serious consequences for causing a breach. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) can investigate the circumstances of each breach and place fines on organisations, relevant to the seriousness of the breach.
The dangers of ransomware attacks
Victims of the Virgin Media data breach should be vigilant about being targeted for ransomware attacks as a result of data exposed in the incident.
Ransomware attacks can have serious consequences for both individuals and companies. Hackers will often use ransomware to encrypt data in computer systems so the owners are unable to gain access to their own files and databases. The malicious software then usually displays a demand to the owners requesting a ransom fee be paid for them to regain access to their computer and files.
Data breaches can occur in a number of different ways, be it ransomware attacks directly targeting services and systems, an employee error that opens up a security flaw, or outdated systems. It could have happened as a result of the ‘incorrectly configured’ database issue that affected the Virgin Media data breach victims in the first place.
Make a data loss compensation claim for the Virgin Media data breach
If you have been affected by the Virgin Media data breach, you could be eligible to make a data loss compensation claim with us, Your Lawyers.
We have launched a Virgin Media Group Action claim, already representing a large number of victims of the data breach, and we are urging any other victims of the breach to come forward and join our claim now.
We have been fighting for justice for victims in data privacy actions and for data loss compensation claims since 2014. We have helped thousands of claimants recover millions in damages across a range of group actions and in individual legal cases. Our expert legal team is on hand to help you get the most out of your claim and access the justice that you deserve.
Risks of reusing passwords can leave you vulnerable to cyberattacks
There are many risks of reusing passwords, all of which can make you more vulnerable to cyberattacks. When serious data breaches occur and your personal information is exposed, victims who reuse passwords can be at a greater at risk of being targeted by cybercriminals.
For example, with the Virgin Media data breach, names, email addresses, and telephone numbers have been exposed in the breached. With criminals potentially having access to this information, they may be able to hack into accounts or attempt email phishing scams, or cold call scams. This will usually be to get personal information from the victims so they can access more of their online accounts. In this case, the risks of reusing passwords could be extremely high, leaving people at high risk of fraudulent activity.
