GDPR: CNIL report on data breaches – August 2023

Introduction

In 2023-08, several personal data breaches were reported to the CNIL, affecting various sectors of activity. These incidents highlighted the vulnerability of personal data and the importance of adequate protection.

Sectors concerned

The sectors most affected by data breaches are:
– Public administration: 75 times
– Financial and insurance activities: 35 times
– Specialized, scientific and technical activities: 26 times
– Information and communication: 25 times
– Trade; repair of automobiles and motorcycles: 22 times
– Other service activities: 20 times
– Human health and social action: 20 times
– Administrative and support services activities: 18 times
– Teaching: 10 times
– Transportation and storage: 7 times
– Manufacturing industry: 6 times
– Arts, entertainment and recreational activities: 5 times
– Real estate activities: 5 times
– Accommodation and catering: 4 times
– Construction: 3 times
– Production and distribution of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning: 2 times
– Water production and distribution; sanitation, waste management and depollution: 1 time

Nature of violations

The types of violations encountered this month are:
– Loss of privacy: 253 times
– Loss of availability: 74 times
– Loss of integrity: 47 times

Number of people impacted

The number of people affected by these incidents is distributed as follows:
– Between 0 and 5 people: 74 times
– Between 301 and 5000 people: 68 times
– Between 6 and 50 people: 54 times
– Between 51 and 300 people: 50 times
– More than 5000 people: 38 times

Typologies of impacted data

The data typologies affected by the breaches are:
– Marital status (eg: name: 221 times
– gender: 221 times
– date of birth: 221 times
– age...): 221 times
– Contact details (e.g. postal or email address: 222 times
– landline or mobile phone numbers...): 222 times
– Identification or access data (e.g. identifier: 88 times
– password: 88 times
– customer number...): 88 times
– The breach concerns other data: 80 times
– NIR (Directory Registration Number): 65 times
– Data relating to financial information (e.g. income: 99 times
– credit card number: 99 times
– bank details): 99 times
– economical: 99 times
– Data relating to offenses: 4 times
– convictions: 4 times
– security measures: 4 times
– Official documents (Passports: 51 times
– ID: 51 times
– etc.): 51 times
– The data concerned is not known at the moment: 21 times
– Location data: 12 times

Origins of incidents

The main causes of these violations are:
– Hacking: 149 times
– malware (e.g. ransomware) and/or phishing: 149 times
– Other: 54 times
– Personal data sent to the wrong recipient: 33 times
– Equipment lost or stolen: 27 times
– Lost paper: 8 times
– stolen or left accessible in an unsecured location: 8 times
– Mail lost or opened before being returned to sender: 3 times
– Unvoluntary publication of information: 24 times
– Personal information disclosed verbally: 5 times
– Bad person data displayed on customer portal: 9 times

Conclusion

Data Comply One (formerly Mission RGPD) offers a complete solution for complying with the GDPR thanks to its GDPR Software, its DPO Coaches, and its outsourced DPO services. These tools help prevent data breaches by ensuring the security and compliance of processing practices. We invite you to use our free Diag GDPR tool to assess your company's compliance.

Consult the CNIL interactive map to find out more.
For more information on notifications to the CNIL and the follow-up taken.
Data on notifications to the CNIL.