GDPR: CNIL report on data breaches – July 2019

Introduction

In 2019-07, 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: 37 times
– Financial and insurance activities: 25 times
– Information and communication: 23 times
– Human health and social action: 22 times
– Specialized, scientific and technical activities: 21 times
– Trade; repair of automobiles and motorcycles: 18 times
– Administrative and support services activities: 12 times
– Teaching: 11 times
– Other service activities: 10 times
– Transportation and storage: 10 times
– Manufacturing industry: 5 times
– Real estate activities: 4 times
– Agriculture, forestry and fishing: 2 times
– Accommodation and catering: 2 times
– Production and distribution of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning: 2 times
– Water production and distribution; sanitation, waste management and depollution: 2 times
– Construction: 2 times

Nature of violations

The types of violations encountered this month are:
– Loss of privacy: 185 times
– Loss of integrity: 27 times
– Loss of availability: 42 times

Number of people impacted

The number of people affected by these incidents is distributed as follows:
– Between 0 and 5 people: 52 times
– Between 51 and 300 people: 50 times
– Between 301 and 5000 people: 48 times
– Between 6 and 50 people: 31 times
– More than 5000 people: 27 times

Typologies of impacted data

The data typologies affected by the breaches are:
– Marital status (eg: name: 159 times
– gender: 159 times
– date of birth: 159 times
– age...): 159 times
– Contact details (e.g. postal or email address: 162 times
– landline or mobile phone numbers...): 162 times
– Identification or access data (e.g. identifier: 68 times
– password: 68 times
– customer number...): 68 times
– Data relating to financial information (e.g. income: 68 times
– credit card number: 68 times
– bank details): 68 times
– economical: 68 times
– NIR (Directory Registration Number): 39 times
– The breach concerns other data: 36 times
– The data concerned is not known at the moment: 20 times
– Location data: 13 times
– Data relating to offenses: 9 times
– convictions: 9 times
– security measures: 9 times
– Official documents (Passports: 22 times
– ID: 22 times
– etc.): 22 times

Origins of incidents

The main causes of these violations are:
– Unvoluntary publication of information: 25 times
– Hacking: 66 times
– malware (e.g. ransomware) and/or phishing: 66 times
– Personal data sent to the wrong recipient: 32 times
– Other: 48 times
– Equipment lost or stolen: 19 times
– Personal information disclosed verbally: 3 times
– Lost paper: 12 times
– stolen or left accessible in an unsecured location: 12 times
– Bad person data displayed on customer portal: 16 times
– Mail lost or opened before being returned to sender: 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.