GDPR: CNIL report on data breaches – March 2021

Introduction

In 2021-03, 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:
– Human health and social action: 105 times
– Specialized, scientific and technical activities: 97 times
– Public administration: 61 times
– Information and communication: 50 times
– Financial and insurance activities: 50 times
– Trade; repair of automobiles and motorcycles: 39 times
– Manufacturing industry: 29 times
– Other service activities: 25 times
– Teaching: 20 times
– Administrative and support services activities: 19 times
– Transportation and storage: 15 times
– Real estate activities: 6 times
– Accommodation and catering: 5 times
– Construction: 4 times
– Production and distribution of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning: 4 times
– Arts, entertainment and recreational activities: 3 times
– Agriculture, forestry and fishing: 1 time
– Unknown: 1 time
– Extra-territorial activities: 1 time

Nature of violations

The types of violations encountered this month are:
– Loss of privacy: 316 times
– Loss of availability: 263 times
– Loss of integrity: 113 times

Number of people impacted

The number of people affected by these incidents is distributed as follows:
– Between 301 and 5000 people: 158 times
– Between 51 and 300 people: 116 times
– Between 0 and 5 people: 109 times
– Between 6 and 50 people: 77 times
– More than 5000 people: 75 times

Typologies of impacted data

The data typologies affected by the breaches are:
– Marital status (eg: name: 378 times
– gender: 378 times
– date of birth: 378 times
– age...): 378 times
– NIR (Directory Registration Number): 121 times
– Contact details (e.g. postal or email address: 395 times
– landline or mobile phone numbers...): 395 times
– Identification or access data (e.g. identifier: 176 times
– password: 176 times
– customer number...): 176 times
– Data relating to financial information (e.g. income: 158 times
– credit card number: 158 times
– bank details): 158 times
– economical: 158 times
– The breach concerns other data: 113 times
– Official documents (Passports: 84 times
– ID: 84 times
– etc.): 84 times
– The data concerned is not known at the moment: 70 times
– Location data: 59 times
– Data relating to offenses: 20 times
– convictions: 20 times
– security measures: 20 times

Origins of incidents

The main causes of these violations are:
– Equipment lost or stolen: 42 times
– Lost paper: 7 times
– stolen or left accessible in an unsecured location: 7 times
– Hacking: 185 times
– malware (e.g. ransomware) and/or phishing: 185 times
– Unvoluntary publication of information: 25 times
– Personal information disclosed verbally: 2 times
– Other: 251 times
– Bad person data displayed on customer portal: 15 times
– Personal data sent to the wrong recipient: 36 times
– Disposal of digital devices containing personal data without secure erasure: 4 times
– Mail lost or opened before being returned to sender: 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.