GDPR: CNIL report on data breaches – April 2019

Introduction

In 2019-04, 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:
– Specialized, scientific and technical activities: 28 times
– Financial and insurance activities: 27 times
– Human health and social action: 19 times
– Public administration: 18 times
– Trade; repair of automobiles and motorcycles: 17 times
– Manufacturing industry: 12 times
– Teaching: 12 times
– Information and communication: 12 times
– Other service activities: 11 times
– Administrative and support services activities: 7 times
– Real estate activities: 7 times
– Transportation and storage: 6 times
– Accommodation and catering: 5 times
– Production and distribution of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning: 3 times
– Construction: 2 times
– Arts, entertainment and recreational activities: 1 time
– Agriculture, forestry and fishing: 1 time

Nature of violations

The types of violations encountered this month are:
– Loss of privacy: 169 times
– Loss of availability: 34 times
– Loss of integrity: 14 times

Number of people impacted

The number of people affected by these incidents is distributed as follows:
– Between 0 and 5 people: 61 times
– Between 301 and 5000 people: 40 times
– Between 51 and 300 people: 37 times
– Between 6 and 50 people: 30 times
– More than 5000 people: 20 times

Typologies of impacted data

The data typologies affected by the breaches are:
– Contact details (e.g. postal or email address: 131 times
– landline or mobile phone numbers...): 131 times
– The data concerned is not known at the moment: 17 times
– Marital status (eg: name: 136 times
– gender: 136 times
– date of birth: 136 times
– age...): 136 times
– Identification or access data (e.g. identifier: 51 times
– password: 51 times
– customer number...): 51 times
– Data relating to financial information (e.g. income: 74 times
– credit card number: 74 times
– bank details): 74 times
– economical: 74 times
– The breach concerns other data: 31 times
– NIR (Directory Registration Number): 33 times
– Location data: 11 times
– Official documents (Passports: 25 times
– ID: 25 times
– etc.): 25 times
– Data relating to offenses: 7 times
– convictions: 7 times
– security measures: 7 times

Origins of incidents

The main causes of these violations are:
– Hacking: 65 times
– malware (e.g. ransomware) and/or phishing: 65 times
– Equipment lost or stolen: 24 times
– Other: 29 times
– Personal data sent to the wrong recipient: 34 times
– Unvoluntary publication of information: 27 times
– Bad person data displayed on customer portal: 9 times
– Lost paper: 5 times
– stolen or left accessible in an unsecured location: 5 times
– Personal information disclosed verbally: 3 times
– Disposal of digital devices containing personal data without secure erasure: 2 times
– Mail lost or opened before being returned to sender: 2 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.