GDPR: CNIL report on data breaches – April 2024

Introduction

In April 2024, 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:
– Trade; repair of automobiles and motorcycles: 85 times
– Public administration: 74 times
– Financial and insurance activities: 53 times
– Human health and social action: 44 times
– Specialized, scientific and technical activities: 30 times
– Information and communication: 22 times
– Manufacturing industry: 19 times
– Teaching: 15 times
– Transportation and storage: 12 times
– Other service activities: 11 times
– Construction: 8 times
– Administrative and support services activities: 8 times
– Arts, entertainment and recreational activities: 7 times
– Real estate activities: 6 times
– Accommodation and catering: 4 times
– Production and distribution of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning: 4 times
– Agriculture, forestry and fishing: 1 time

Nature of violations

The types of violations encountered this month are:
– Loss of privacy: 377 times
– Loss of availability: 80 times
– Loss of integrity: 63 times

Number of people impacted

The number of people affected by these incidents is distributed as follows:
– Between 0 and 5 people: 160 times
– Between 301 and 5000 people: 80 times
– Between 6 and 50 people: 63 times
– Between 51 and 300 people: 62 times
– More than 5000 people: 38 times

Typologies of impacted data

The data typologies affected by the breaches are:
– Marital status (eg: name: 268 times
– gender: 268 times
– date of birth: 268 times
– age...): 268 times
– Contact details (e.g. postal or email address: 258 times
– landline or mobile phone numbers...): 258 times
– Identification or access data (e.g. identifier: 155 times
– password: 155 times
– customer number...): 155 times
– The breach concerns other data: 88 times
– Data relating to financial information (e.g. income: 119 times
– credit card number: 119 times
– bank details): 119 times
– economical: 119 times
– NIR (Directory Registration Number): 60 times
– Official documents (Passports: 54 times
– ID: 54 times
– etc.): 54 times
– The data concerned is not known at the moment: 48 times
– Location data: 20 times
– Data relating to offenses: 9 times
– convictions: 9 times
– security measures: 9 times

Origins of incidents

The main causes of these violations are:
– Hacking: 193 times
– malware (e.g. ransomware) and/or phishing: 193 times
– Personal data sent to the wrong recipient: 49 times
– Other: 87 times
– Lost paper: 13 times
– stolen or left accessible in an unsecured location: 13 times
– Equipment lost or stolen: 44 times
– Bad person data displayed on customer portal: 10 times
– Unvoluntary publication of information: 31 times
– Personal information disclosed verbally: 9 times
– Mail lost or opened before being returned to sender: 6 times
– Disposal of digital devices containing personal data without secure erasure: 2 times
– Disposal of paper documents containing personal data without physical destruction: 3 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.