Data Breaches in 2018 – The Perils Of Living In The 21st Century

ll down to GDPR. It’s now the law and all businesses must complyModern times are pretty amazing. When you look at what we have now compared to what our parents had when they were growing up, it’s really quite impressive to see how far technology has come.

The majority of us have immediate access to the internet if and when we need it and you can pretty much find the answer to any question you might have with a quick search on Google. Holidays are easily booked without going to a travel agent and you don’t even need to set foot outside of your house to get your weekly grocery shop if you don’t want to. The world is literally at our fingertips thanks to the world wide web. Sadly though, there is a darker side and these luxuries don’t come without dangers.

GDPR

Last year saw the introduction of GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation. There is no doubt you will have heard of it. If not on the news then your email inbox will likely have been flooded with mail asking you to confirm if you are happy to stay on the countless mailing lists that you probably didn’t sign up for.

The introduction of GDPR was huge for all businesses. It meant a lot of preparation and in many cases, rewriting privacy policies. You know those annoying pop ups you get on every website asking you about cookies? All down to GDPR. It’s now the law and all businesses must comply. So we should feel pretty safe about sharing our data online, right?

Data Breaches in 2018

Maybe not. Not quite. In 2018 alone there were plenty of instances where companies showed that they couldn’t keep our data, personal information and even bank details safe. Online security label manufacture Seareach.plc.uk  who specialise in asset labels and asset tracking, collated some of the biggest data breaches of last year, month by month.

Speaking about the research, Stuart Jailler at Seareach commented:

“We hand over our personal information daily, whether that’s joining a new online service, logging into online banking or even shopping online, and we expect our personal information, our data to be kept safe and secure. However, many big businesses have shown time, and time again that they can’t keep this information safe and secure. With attacks from hackers and mishandled customer information, millions of people from around the world had their personal information breached in 2018.”

He added:

“There are different types of data breaches, these can be from companies’ websites being hacked to data being mishandled or sold on without consent to third parties. Some of the biggest companies worldwide have been hit, including Facebook, British Airways, Marriot Hotels and TicketMaster, as well as a slew of others. Will we see companies taking data security even more seriously in 2019, will customers start to lose faith and curtail what they do online, only time will tell.”

Real life experience

It’s worrying to think that by simply entering your name and address and maybe even card details if it’s an innocent purchase online, you could be putting everything at risk. In a world where we are taught to shred all of our mail before disposing of it to protect ourselves from identity fraud, you would like to think that you can use a secure website safely – especially if they are huge firms such as Facebook and British Airways.

Fellow blogger Rachel Cooper who runs Coffee, Cake, Kids was affected by the British Airways data breach last year:

“I had a real problem when there was the British Airways breach, and I have never ever used BA. Somehow, my details got caught up in it and my bank card was locked. It took about two weeks of constant phone calls to my bank to sort it out and get a new card, and doing a 20 mile round trip to the bank every time I needed to get cash out. It was an absolute nightmare.”

What concerns me most about this is that Rachel had never even used BA – how on earth had they even got her details? It’s really not acceptable from a firm as large and credible as British Airways. But then it doesn’t matter how big your company is, your customers privacy and data protection should be the number one priority.

The Biggest Data Breaches of 2018

Take a look at the infographic below to see a round up of all of high profile data breaches in 2018. There may be a few there that you hadn’t heard about and some may well surprise you.

I for one, know that I am signed up to five of the companies mentioned in the infographic above yet I still only knew about half of them. This is concerning to say the least.

Have you been affected by any of these data breaches? Are you more careful about your digital footprint these days? Let me know in the comments.

Seareach is a security label manufacturer, based in the UK. The company was established in 1976 and focuses on producing security labels, identification tags and printed documents including cheques, vouchers, certificates and tickets.

Seareach has worked with high-profile government bodies including the NHS, Ofsted and Police forces as well as British multinational telecommunications conglomerates Vodafone and German engineering company Siemens. They are experienced in supplying large multi-nationals through to small businesses and organisations, corporate enterprises, education authorities, charities and voluntary organisations with high-quality products.

They pride themselves in their attention to detail, from placement of an order through to Quality Control (QC) on pre-despatched items, providing rapid despatch of high-security products.

Seareach strives to offer the best possible service and products to new and existing customers.

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