GDPR: CNIL report on data breaches – December 2019

Introduction

In 2019-12, 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: 41 times
– Trade; repair of automobiles and motorcycles: 26 times
– Financial and insurance activities: 20 times
– Human health and social action: 19 times
– Specialized, scientific and technical activities: 18 times
– Administrative and support services activities: 9 times
– Information and communication: 9 times
– Manufacturing industry: 9 times
– Teaching: 8 times
– Transportation and storage: 8 times
– Other service activities: 6 times
– Real estate activities: 4 times
– Water production and distribution; sanitation, waste management and depollution: 2 times
– Production and distribution of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning: 2 times
– Construction: 1 time
– Accommodation and catering: 1 time
– Agriculture, forestry and fishing: 1 time

Nature of violations

The types of violations encountered this month are:
– Loss of availability: 40 times
– Loss of privacy: 162 times
– Loss of integrity: 17 times

Number of people impacted

The number of people affected by these incidents is distributed as follows:
– Between 301 and 5000 people: 44 times
– Between 6 and 50 people: 42 times
– Between 51 and 300 people: 38 times
– Between 0 and 5 people: 36 times
– More than 5000 people: 24 times

Typologies of impacted data

The data typologies affected by the breaches are:
– Marital status (eg: name: 144 times
– gender: 144 times
– date of birth: 144 times
– age...): 144 times
– Contact details (e.g. postal or email address: 140 times
– landline or mobile phone numbers...): 140 times
– Official documents (Passports: 17 times
– ID: 17 times
– etc.): 17 times
– NIR (Directory Registration Number): 25 times
– Data relating to financial information (e.g. income: 54 times
– credit card number: 54 times
– bank details): 54 times
– economical: 54 times
– The breach concerns other data: 42 times
– Identification or access data (e.g. identifier: 59 times
– password: 59 times
– customer number...): 59 times
– The data concerned is not known at the moment: 14 times
– Location data: 7 times
– Data relating to offenses: 1 time
– convictions: 1 time
– security measures: 1 time

Origins of incidents

The main causes of these violations are:
– Lost paper: 11 times
– stolen or left accessible in an unsecured location: 11 times
– Mail lost or opened before being returned to sender: 6 times
– Personal information disclosed verbally: 2 times
– Other: 41 times
– Equipment lost or stolen: 24 times
– Hacking: 61 times
– malware (e.g. ransomware) and/or phishing: 61 times
– Data of the wrong person displayed on the customer portal: 8 times
– Unvoluntary publication of information: 27 times
– Personal data sent to the wrong recipient: 20 times
– Disposal of digital devices containing personal data without secure erasure: 1 time

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.