Aman Johal

The coronavirus pandemic continues to cause huge upheaval in our everyday lives. With a third lockdown now in force across England, the changes and difficulties that many are living with are unfortunately set to continue. Businesses have been dealt a difficult hand, having to manoeuvre through the chopping and changing of rules and regulations. With upheaval comes confusion and, unfortunately, this weakness has brought about huge issues with cybersecurity, and cyberattacks have increased. With much of the country continuing to be asked to work from home, it’s worth looking at how businesses have contended with the ever-present threat of cyberattacks…

It’s sad, but unsurprising, that digital privacy regulations introduced in Europe over two years ago are in danger of failing because regulators are under-resourced. As we mark the second anniversary of the introduction of the GDPR, a report by Brave – makers of a pro-privacy browser –found that “European governments have failed to equip their national regulators to enforce GDPR”. The report found that only five of Europe’s 28 national enforcers of the GDPR have more than 10 tech specialists each, and that half of EU enforcers of the GDPR have a small annual budget of €5 million or less.…

Cybersecurity should be a priority for all businesses and there is no excuse for failing to take the matter seriously in 2020. Staff must be adequately equipped to deal with threats; businesses must understand the importance of adhering to data protection laws; and consumers should be aware of their rights.  The importance of educating staff on cybersecurity cannot be understated. If staff are not sufficiently upskilled, businesses make themselves more vulnerable to cyberattacks. When staff are not confident in their ability to prevent leaks, they can easily end up causing one. In the disastrous Equifax data breach, there was a…

Almost 2,000 transgender patients had their personal details leaked by a leading London gender identity clinic last week. A member of staff at The Charing Cross Gender Identity clinic accidentally CC’d patients into an email revealing the names and email addresses of hundreds of other clients. The leak represents a serious breach of patient confidentiality concerning the dissemination of highly sensitive medical and personal information. The incident was similar to a data breach which involved the email details of 800 patients diagnosed HIV positive being leaked by a clinic on 56 Dean Street in 2015. The Information Commissioner fined the…