GDPR: CNIL report on data breaches – January 2024

Introduction

In January 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:
– Financial and insurance activities: 63 times
– Public administration: 57 times
– Trade; repair of automobiles and motorcycles: 54 times
– Human health and social action: 38 times
– Specialized, scientific and technical activities: 30 times
– Other service activities: 24 times
– Information and communication: 23 times
– Manufacturing industry: 20 times
– Teaching: 14 times
– Administrative and support services activities: 12 times
– Transportation and storage: 11 times
– Construction: 10 times
– Real estate activities: 7 times
– Arts, entertainment and recreational activities: 6 times
– Accommodation and catering: 6 times
– Production and distribution of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning: 3 times
– Unknown: 1 time
– Water production and distribution; sanitation, waste management and depollution: 1 time
– Agriculture, forestry and fishing: 1 time

Nature of violations

The types of violations encountered this month are:
– Loss of privacy: 348 times
– Loss of availability: 123 times
– Loss of integrity: 70 times

Number of people impacted

The number of people affected by these incidents is distributed as follows:
– Between 0 and 5 people: 110 times
– Between 301 and 5000 people: 94 times
– Between 6 and 50 people: 63 times
– Between 51 and 300 people: 59 times
– More than 5000 people: 55 times

Typologies of impacted data

The data typologies affected by the breaches are:
– Marital status (eg: name: 275 times
– gender: 275 times
– date of birth: 275 times
– age...): 275 times
– NIR (Directory Registration Number): 60 times
– The breach concerns other data: 93 times
– Contact details (e.g. postal or email address: 241 times
– landline or mobile phone numbers...): 241 times
– Identification or access data (e.g. identifier: 131 times
– password: 131 times
– customer number...): 131 times
– Data relating to financial information (e.g. income: 122 times
– credit card number: 122 times
– bank details): 122 times
– economical: 122 times
– Official documents (Passports: 58 times
– ID: 58 times
– etc.): 58 times
– Data relating to offenses: 13 times
– convictions: 13 times
– security measures: 13 times
– The data concerned is not known at the moment: 48 times
– Location data: 21 times

Origins of incidents

The main causes of these violations are:
– Hacking: 201 times
– malware (e.g. ransomware) and/or phishing: 201 times
– Other: 72 times
– Equipment lost or stolen: 26 times
– Lost paper: 18 times
– stolen or left accessible in an unsecured location: 18 times
– Unvoluntary publication of information: 27 times
– Personal data sent to the wrong recipient: 55 times
– Bad person data displayed on customer portal: 13 times
– Disposal of digital devices containing personal data without secure erasure: 3 times
– Mail lost or opened before being returned to sender: 5 times
– Personal information disclosed verbally: 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.