GDPR: CNIL report on data breaches – March 2019

Introduction

In 2019-03, 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:
– Specialized, scientific and technical activities: 36 times
– Public administration: 30 times
– Financial and insurance activities: 26 times
– Information and communication: 17 times
– Trade; repair of automobiles and motorcycles: 15 times
– Teaching: 12 times
– Manufacturing industry: 12 times
– Transportation and storage: 11 times
– Human health and social action: 9 times
– Other service activities: 9 times
– Administrative and support services activities: 7 times
– Real estate activities: 4 times
– Arts, entertainment and recreational activities: 3 times
– Accommodation and catering: 2 times
– Construction: 1 time
– Agriculture, forestry and fishing: 1 time
– Water production and distribution; sanitation, waste management and depollution: 1 time
– Production and distribution of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning: 1 time
– Extra-territorial activities: 1 time

Nature of violations

The types of violations encountered this month are:
– Loss of privacy: 182 times
– Loss of integrity: 20 times
– Loss of availability: 40 times

Number of people impacted

The number of people affected by these incidents is distributed as follows:
– Between 301 and 5000 people: 56 times
– Between 0 and 5 people: 46 times
– Between 51 and 300 people: 41 times
– Between 6 and 50 people: 28 times
– More than 5000 people: 27 times

Typologies of impacted data

The data typologies affected by the breaches are:
– Marital status (eg: name: 132 times
– gender: 132 times
– date of birth: 132 times
– age...): 132 times
– Contact details (e.g. postal or email address: 144 times
– landline or mobile phone numbers...): 144 times
– Identification or access data (e.g. identifier: 52 times
– password: 52 times
– customer number...): 52 times
– NIR (Directory Registration Number): 38 times
– Data relating to financial information (e.g. income: 71 times
– credit card number: 71 times
– bank details): 71 times
– economical: 71 times
– The breach concerns other data: 27 times
– Official documents (Passports: 20 times
– ID: 20 times
– etc.): 20 times
– The data concerned is not known at the moment: 15 times
– Location data: 13 times
– Data relating to offenses: 5 times
– convictions: 5 times
– security measures: 5 times

Origins of incidents

The main causes of these violations are:
– Hacking: 68 times
– malware (e.g. ransomware) and/or phishing: 68 times
– Equipment lost or stolen: 25 times
– Personal data sent to the wrong recipient: 27 times
– Lost paper: 11 times
– stolen or left accessible in an unsecured location: 11 times
– Other: 41 times
– Unvoluntary publication of information: 28 times
– Personal information disclosed verbally: 3 times
– Disposal of digital devices containing personal data without secure erasure: 2 times
– Mail lost or opened before being returned to sender: 3 times
– Bad person data displayed on customer portal: 10 times
– Disposal of paper documents containing personal data without physical destruction: 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.