GDPR: CNIL report on data breaches – January 2020

Introduction

In 2020-01, 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: 42 times
– Financial and insurance activities: 39 times
– Public administration: 32 times
– Specialized, scientific and technical activities: 27 times
– Human health and social action: 22 times
– Information and communication: 18 times
– Administrative and support services activities: 15 times
– Teaching: 14 times
– Manufacturing industry: 14 times
– Real estate activities: 14 times
– Other service activities: 10 times
– Transportation and storage: 9 times
– Construction: 7 times
– Agriculture, forestry and fishing: 5 times
– Accommodation and catering: 3 times
– Water production and distribution; sanitation, waste management and depollution: 3 times
– Unknown: 2 times
– Arts, entertainment and recreational activities: 1 time
– Production and distribution of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning: 1 time

Nature of violations

The types of violations encountered this month are:
– Loss of privacy: 213 times
– Loss of integrity: 66 times
– Loss of availability: 99 times

Number of people impacted

The number of people affected by these incidents is distributed as follows:
– Between 0 and 5 people: 83 times
– Between 301 and 5000 people: 70 times
– Between 6 and 50 people: 49 times
– Between 51 and 300 people: 42 times
– More than 5000 people: 34 times

Typologies of impacted data

The data typologies affected by the breaches are:
– Contact details (e.g. postal or email address: 207 times
– landline or mobile phone numbers...): 207 times
– The data concerned is not known at the moment: 27 times
– Marital status (eg: name: 209 times
– gender: 209 times
– date of birth: 209 times
– age...): 209 times
– NIR (Directory Registration Number): 55 times
– Identification or access data (e.g. identifier: 108 times
– password: 108 times
– customer number...): 108 times
– Data relating to financial information (e.g. income: 109 times
– credit card number: 109 times
– bank details): 109 times
– economical: 109 times
– Official documents (Passports: 51 times
– ID: 51 times
– etc.): 51 times
– The breach concerns other data: 48 times
– Location data: 20 times
– Data relating to offenses: 12 times
– convictions: 12 times
– security measures: 12 times

Origins of incidents

The main causes of these violations are:
– Hacking: 151 times
– malware (e.g. ransomware) and/or phishing: 151 times
– Lost paper: 11 times
– stolen or left accessible in an unsecured location: 11 times
– Other: 49 times
– Equipment lost or stolen: 30 times
– Personal data sent to the wrong recipient: 23 times
– Unvoluntary publication of information: 27 times
– Personal information disclosed verbally: 1 time
– Mail lost or opened before being returned to sender: 3 times
– Disposal of paper documents containing personal data without physical destruction: 1 time
– Data of the wrong person displayed on the customer portal: 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.