UK Merger Watchdog Suffers 150 Data Breaches In Two Years
The U.K. government’s antitrust regulator was hit by 150 personal data breaches in the last two years, as hackers targeted its trove of sensitive business information. UK Merger Watchdog Suffers 150 Data Breaches In Two Years
The Competition and Markets Authority found 81 cases of unauthorized disclosure of information and 40 devices were lost or stolen — two of them unencrypted — according to freedom of information documents.
The watchdog handles internal business reports, copies of emails and other internal data. Leaks could potentially allow interested parties to profit from such data or even attempt to influence the outcome of a takeover, although there was no evidence that the CMA’s investigations were compromised.
The CMA declined to give further details, including whether any deals were affected.
The number of breaches was higher than the 145 recorded in the previous two-year period from 2017 to 2018. They also included two hacks and four cases of malicious software. There were 11 successful phishing attempts, in which fraudsters pose as legitimate counter-parties to access sensitive information.
Five of the CMA breaches were reported to the U.K. data regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office, as they incurred risks to people’s rights and freedoms. Three of those were considered risky enough to result in individuals being informed, and were followed up with procedural or technical changes to address the underlying causes, the CMA said.
An ICO spokeswoman said the five cases came about because data was sent to the wrong people. She said the data watchdog didn’t believe the incidents described involved leaks of deal information, but such an incident “may not involve personal data in any case, and would therefore not be reported to us or fall within our remit.”
Since Brexit, the CMA is in charge of regulating U.K. mergers and acquisitions. The body employs about 840 people, according to its most recent annual report.
The breaches may have been accidental or deliberate. They could have included data being accessed by people outside the CMA, the loss or unauthorized alteration of personal data, staff accessing information they shouldn’t have or sending it to the wrong place, or being tricked into releasing data they shouldn’t.
“The CMA takes any data breaches extremely seriously and continually reviews its processes to ensure the strongest possible safeguards are in place,” the watchdog’s spokeswoman said by email. “For this reason, we have fostered a no-blame culture for the reporting of security incidents and staff are encouraged to — and do — record even minor incidents, which can lead to a higher level of reports.”
The U.K. government’s antitrust regulator was hit by 150 personal data breaches in the last two years, as hackers targeted its trove of sensitive business information. UK Merger Watchdog Suffers 150 Data Breaches In Two Years
Related Articles:
Hacker Changed Chemical Level In Florida City’s Water System
KeepChange Foils Bitcoin Theft But Loses User Data In Sunday Breach
Hacker Refuses To Hand Police Password For Seized Wallet With $6.5M In Bitcoin
SonicWall Says It Was Victim of ‘Sophisticated’ Hack
Tor Project’s Crypto Donations Increased 23% In 2020
Armed Robbers Steal $450K From Hong Kong Crypto Trader
Is Your iPhone Passcode Off Limits To The Law? Supreme Court Ruling Sought
Researchers Warn 3 Apps Have Been Stealing Crypto Undetected For A Year
Ways To Prevent Phishing Scams In 2020
The Pandemic Turbocharged Online Privacy Concerns
US Treasury Breached By Foreign-Backed Hackers
FireEye Hack Portends A Scary Era Of Cyber-Insecurity
How FinCEN Became A Honeypot For Sensitive Personal Data
Apple And Google To Stop X-Mode From Collecting Location Data From Users’ Phones
Surge In Physical Threats During Pandemic Complicates Employee Security Efforts
Imagine A Nutrition Label—for Cybersecurity
Cybercriminals Attack GoDaddy-based Cryptocurrency Platforms
Biden Team Lacks Full U.S. Cybersecurity Support In Transition Fracas
Nasdaq To Buy Anti-Financial Crime Firm Verafin For $2.75 Billion
Mysterious Software Bugs Were Used To Hack iPhones and Android Phones and No One Will Talk About It
Dark Web Hackers Say They Hold Keys To 10,000 Robinhood Accounts #GotBitcoin
Hackers Steal $2.3 Million From Trump Wisconsin Campaign Account
Crypto Scammers Deface Trump Campaign Website One Week From Elections
Telecoms Protocol From 1975 Exploited To Target 20 Crypto Executives
With Traders Far From Offices, Banks Bring Surveillance To Homes
A Millionaire Hacker’s Lessons For Corporate America
Container Shipping Line CMA CGM Says Data Possibly Stolen In Cyberattack
Major Hospital System Hit With Cyberattack, Potentially Largest In U.S. History
Hacker Releases Information On Las Vegas-Area Students After Officials Don’t Pay Ransom
Russian Troll Farms Posing As African-American Support For Donald Trump
US Moves To Seize Cryptocurrency Accounts Linked To North Korean Heists
These Illicit SIM Cards Are Making Hacks Like Twitter’s Easier
Uber Exec Allegedly Concealed 2016 Hack With $100K BTC ‘Bug Bounty’ Pay-Off
Senate Panel’s Russia Probe Found Counterintelligence Risks In Trump’s 2016 Campaign
Bockchain Based Surveillance Camera Technology Detects Crime In Real-Time
Facebook Offers Money To Reel In TikTok Creators
How A Facebook Employee Helped Trump Win—But Switched Sides For 2020
Facebook Rebuffs Barr, Moves Ahead on Messaging Encryption
Facebook Ad Rates Fall As Coronavirus Undermines Ad Spending
Facebook Labels Trump Posts On Grounds That He’s Inciting Violence
Crypto Prediction Markets Face Competition From Facebook ‘Forecasts’ (#GotBitcoin?)
Coronavirus Is The Pin That Burst Facebook And Google Online Ads Business Bubble
OpenLibra Plans To Launch Permissionless Fork Of Facebook’s Stablecoin (#GotBitcoin?)
Facebook Warns Investors That Libra Stablecoin May Never Launch (#GotBitcoin?)
FTC Approves Roughly $5 Billion Facebook Settlement (#GotBitcoin?)
How Facebook Coin’s Big Corporate Backers Will Profit From Crypto
Facebook’s Libra Is Bad For African Americans (#GotBitcoin?)
A Monumental Fight Over Facebook’s Cryptocurrency Is Coming (#GotBitcoin?)
Alert! 540 Million Facebook Users’ Data Exposed On Amazon Servers (#GotBitcoin?)
Facebook Bug Potentially Exposed Unshared Photos of Up 6.8 Million Users (#GotBitcoin?)
Facebook Says Millions of Users’ Passwords Were Improperly Stored in Internal Systems (#GotBitcoin?)
Advertisers Allege Facebook Failed to Disclose Key Metric Error For More Than A Year (#GotBitcoin?)
Ad Agency CEO Calls On Marketers To Take Collective Stand Against Facebook (#GotBitcoin?)
Thieves Can Now Nab Your Data In A Few Minutes For A Few Bucks (#GotBitcoin?)
New Crypto Mining Malware Beapy Uses Leaked NSA Hacking Tools: Symantec Research (#GotBitcoin?)
Equifax, FICO Team Up To Sell Your Financial Data To Banks (#GotBitcoin?)
Cyber-Security Alert!: FEMA Leaked Data Of 2.3 Million Disaster Survivors (#GotBitcoin?)
DMV Hacked! Your Personal Records Are Now Being Transmitted To Croatia (#GotBitcoin?)
Lithuanian Man Pleads Guilty In $100 Million Fraud Against Google, Facebook (#GotBitcoin?)
Hack Alert! Buca Di Beppo, Owned By Earl Enterprises Suffers Data Breach Of 2M Cards (#GotBitcoin?)
SEC Hack Proves Bitcoin Has Better Data Security (#GotBitcoin?)
Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) Rises As Banking Industry’s Overseer (#GotBitcoin?)
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.