GDPR: CNIL report on data breaches – July 2020

Introduction

In 2020-07, 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: 68 times
– Financial and insurance activities: 46 times
– Human health and social action: 44 times
– Specialized, scientific and technical activities: 35 times
– Trade; repair of automobiles and motorcycles: 19 times
– Information and communication: 15 times
– Administrative and support services activities: 14 times
– Teaching: 9 times
– Manufacturing industry: 8 times
– Real estate activities: 7 times
– Transportation and storage: 6 times
– Arts, entertainment and recreational activities: 5 times
– Other service activities: 4 times
– Accommodation and catering: 3 times
– Water production and distribution; sanitation, waste management and depollution: 3 times
– Production and distribution of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning: 2 times

Nature of violations

The types of violations encountered this month are:
– Loss of privacy: 267 times
– Loss of integrity: 32 times
– Loss of availability: 49 times

Number of people impacted

The number of people affected by these incidents is distributed as follows:
– Between 301 and 5000 people: 77 times
– Between 0 and 5 people: 65 times
– Between 6 and 50 people: 53 times
– Between 51 and 300 people: 47 times
– More than 5000 people: 46 times

Typologies of impacted data

The data typologies affected by the breaches are:
– Marital status (eg: name: 222 times
– gender: 222 times
– date of birth: 222 times
– age...): 222 times
– Contact details (e.g. postal or email address: 219 times
– landline or mobile phone numbers...): 219 times
– Data relating to financial information (e.g. income: 107 times
– credit card number: 107 times
– bank details): 107 times
– economical: 107 times
– NIR (Directory Registration Number): 40 times
– Official documents (Passports: 49 times
– ID: 49 times
– etc.): 49 times
– Identification or access data (e.g. identifier: 87 times
– password: 87 times
– customer number...): 87 times
– The breach concerns other data: 51 times
– Location data: 23 times
– The data concerned is not known at the moment: 22 times
– Data relating to offenses: 8 times
– convictions: 8 times
– security measures: 8 times

Origins of incidents

The main causes of these violations are:
– Hacking: 116 times
– malware (e.g. ransomware) and/or phishing: 116 times
– Bad person data displayed on customer portal: 23 times
– Other: 71 times
– Personal data sent to the wrong recipient: 59 times
– Equipment lost or stolen: 15 times
– Unvoluntary publication of information: 27 times
– Lost paper: 5 times
– stolen or left accessible in an unsecured location: 5 times
– Personal information disclosed verbally: 3 times
– Mail lost or opened before being returned to sender: 8 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.