GDPR: CNIL report on data breaches – March 2022

Introduction

In 2022-03, 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:
– Public administration: 67 times
– Financial and insurance activities: 43 times
– Human health and social action: 29 times
– Specialized, scientific and technical activities: 25 times
– Other service activities: 15 times
– Trade; repair of automobiles and motorcycles: 14 times
– Teaching: 12 times
– Information and communication: 12 times
– Real estate activities: 10 times
– Manufacturing industry: 10 times
– Transportation and storage: 7 times
– Administrative and support services activities: 4 times
– Construction: 4 times
– Production and distribution of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning: 3 times
– Arts, entertainment and recreational activities: 3 times
– Water production and distribution; sanitation, waste management and depollution: 2 times
– Unknown: 1 time

Nature of violations

The types of violations encountered this month are:
– Loss of privacy: 239 times
– Loss of availability: 49 times
– Loss of integrity: 25 times

Number of people impacted

The number of people affected by these incidents is distributed as follows:
– Between 301 and 5000 people: 66 times
– Between 6 and 50 people: 62 times
– Between 0 and 5 people: 57 times
– Between 51 and 300 people: 52 times
– More than 5000 people: 24 times

Typologies of impacted data

The data typologies affected by the breaches are:
– Contact details (e.g. postal or email address: 198 times
– landline or mobile phone numbers...): 198 times
– Marital status (eg: name: 199 times
– gender: 199 times
– date of birth: 199 times
– age...): 199 times
– The breach concerns other data: 52 times
– Identification or access data (e.g. identifier: 92 times
– password: 92 times
– customer number...): 92 times
– NIR (Directory Registration Number): 62 times
– Location data: 23 times
– Data relating to financial information (e.g. income: 113 times
– credit card number: 113 times
– bank details): 113 times
– economical: 113 times
– Official documents (Passports: 59 times
– ID: 59 times
– etc.): 59 times
– The data concerned is not known at the moment: 23 times
– Data relating to offenses: 13 times
– convictions: 13 times
– security measures: 13 times

Origins of incidents

The main causes of these violations are:
– Hacking: 120 times
– malware (e.g. ransomware) and/or phishing: 120 times
– Equipment lost or stolen: 30 times
– Unvoluntary publication of information: 24 times
– Other: 51 times
– Personal data sent to the wrong recipient: 36 times
– Mail lost or opened before being returned to sender: 1 time
– Data of the wrong person displayed on the customer portal: 8 times
– Lost paper: 6 times
– stolen or left accessible in an unsecured location: 6 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.