GDPR: CNIL report on data breaches – April 2023

Introduction

In 2023-04, 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:
– Other service activities: 97 times
– Financial and insurance activities: 66 times
– Public administration: 55 times
– Human health and social action: 47 times
– Specialized, scientific and technical activities: 45 times
– Trade; repair of automobiles and motorcycles: 30 times
– Information and communication: 28 times
– Manufacturing industry: 21 times
– Teaching: 15 times
– Construction: 15 times
– Real estate activities: 13 times
– Administrative and support services activities: 12 times
– Arts, entertainment and recreational activities: 10 times
– Transportation and storage: 9 times
– Accommodation and catering: 4 times
– Production and distribution of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning: 4 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: 380 times
– Loss of availability: 202 times
– Loss of integrity: 86 times

Number of people impacted

The number of people affected by these incidents is distributed as follows:
– Between 301 and 5000 people: 164 times
– Between 51 and 300 people: 92 times
– Between 0 and 5 people: 90 times
– Between 6 and 50 people: 82 times
– More than 5000 people: 44 times

Typologies of impacted data

The data typologies affected by the breaches are:
– Marital status (eg: name: 373 times
– gender: 373 times
– date of birth: 373 times
– age...): 373 times
– Data relating to financial information (e.g. income: 216 times
– credit card number: 216 times
– bank details): 216 times
– economical: 216 times
– Contact details (e.g. postal or email address: 377 times
– landline or mobile phone numbers...): 377 times
– NIR (Directory Registration Number): 107 times
– Identification or access data (e.g. identifier: 227 times
– password: 227 times
– customer number...): 227 times
– The breach concerns other data: 74 times
– The data concerned is not known at the moment: 54 times
– Location data: 29 times
– Official documents (Passports: 73 times
– ID: 73 times
– etc.): 73 times
– Data relating to offenses: 8 times
– convictions: 8 times
– security measures: 8 times

Origins of incidents

The main causes of these violations are:
– Personal data sent to the wrong recipient: 53 times
– Hacking: 298 times
– malware (e.g. ransomware) and/or phishing: 298 times
– Other: 60 times
– Mail lost or opened before being returned to sender: 3 times
– Equipment lost or stolen: 34 times
– Lost paper: 10 times
– stolen or left accessible in an unsecured location: 10 times
– Unvoluntary publication of information: 29 times
– Bad person data displayed on customer portal: 9 times
– Disposal of paper documents containing personal data without physical destruction: 1 time
– Personal information disclosed verbally: 7 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.