GDPR: CNIL report on data breaches – October 2019

Introduction

In 2019-10, 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: 43 times
– Financial and insurance activities: 33 times
– Specialized, scientific and technical activities: 32 times
– Trade; repair of automobiles and motorcycles: 26 times
– Information and communication: 21 times
– Human health and social action: 17 times
– Transportation and storage: 15 times
– Other service activities: 13 times
– Manufacturing industry: 10 times
– Administrative and support services activities: 8 times
– Teaching: 7 times
– Production and distribution of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning: 4 times
– Real estate activities: 4 times
– Arts, entertainment and recreational activities: 3 times
– Water production and distribution; sanitation, waste management and depollution: 1 time
– Construction: 1 time

Nature of violations

The types of violations encountered this month are:
– Loss of integrity: 31 times
– Loss of availability: 43 times
– Loss of privacy: 207 times

Number of people impacted

The number of people affected by these incidents is distributed as follows:
– Between 0 and 5 people: 65 times
– Between 301 and 5000 people: 60 times
– Between 51 and 300 people: 41 times
– Between 6 and 50 people: 41 times
– More than 5000 people: 31 times

Typologies of impacted data

The data typologies affected by the breaches are:
– Identification or access data (e.g. identifier: 77 times
– password: 77 times
– customer number...): 77 times
– Data relating to financial information (e.g. income: 83 times
– credit card number: 83 times
– bank details): 83 times
– economical: 83 times
– The breach concerns other data: 42 times
– Marital status (eg: name: 171 times
– gender: 171 times
– date of birth: 171 times
– age...): 171 times
– Contact details (e.g. postal or email address: 190 times
– landline or mobile phone numbers...): 190 times
– The data concerned is not known at the moment: 14 times
– Official documents (Passports: 37 times
– ID: 37 times
– etc.): 37 times
– Location data: 19 times
– Data relating to offenses: 7 times
– convictions: 7 times
– security measures: 7 times
– NIR (Directory Registration Number): 46 times

Origins of incidents

The main causes of these violations are:
– Hacking: 91 times
– malware (e.g. ransomware) and/or phishing: 91 times
– Unvoluntary publication of information: 28 times
– Bad person data displayed on customer portal: 13 times
– Personal data sent to the wrong recipient: 30 times
– Other: 56 times
– Lost paper: 11 times
– stolen or left accessible in an unsecured location: 11 times
– Mail lost or opened before being returned to sender: 6 times
– Equipment lost or stolen: 26 times
– Personal information disclosed verbally: 3 times
– Disposal of paper documents containing personal data without physical destruction: 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.