Are you wondering what steps you could take if your personal information were to be compromised in an army data breach? If so, our guide could help. We will provide guidance on what a personal data breach is, the information that could be compromised and the way you could be impacted as a result. Also, we will look at when you could be eligible to seek compensation following a breach of your personal data.
There are certain parties who have a responsibility to protect your personal data, both physical and digital. We will explore the legislation that these parties must adhere to as well the roles they each have with regard to personal data.
Additionally, as you move through our guide, you will find information on data breach compensation payouts, including how they aim to address the different ways you could be impacted if your personal data was compromised.
Finally, we will discuss how our panel of solicitors could potentially help you seek compensation on a No Win No Fee basis.
For more information, you can get in touch with an advisor. To reach them, you can:
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- Call on 0800 408 7825
- Contact us online.
- Use the live chat function for an instant response.
Select A Section
- Army Data Breach – Could You Claim Compensation?
- How Could A Data Breach Occur?
- How Could A Data Breach Impact You?
- What Steps Can I Take After My Personal Data Was Breached?
- What Could You Claim In Compensation For A Data Breach?
- Talk To Us If You Have Been Affected By An Army Data Breach
Army Data Breach – Could You Claim Compensation?
In order to make a personal data breach claim, you need to prove the following:
- Firstly, there was a failure on the part of a data controller or processor to adhere to data protection legislation.
- Secondly, as a result of their wrongful conduct, your personal data was compromised in a breach.
- Finally, because of the breach, you were caused financial damage, emotional harm, or both.
Data controllers decide on the means and purpose for processing your personal data. They can process the data themselves, but in some cases will outsource this task to a data processor who acts on their instruction.
Both parties need to adhere to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) which outlines their responsibilities to protect your personal data. This is information that can be used to identify you, such as your phone number, postal address, email address, National Insurance number and debit or credit card details.
It can also include another type of personal data called special category data. This can include information that reveals your ethnic or racial origin and data that concerns your health. Data of this nature is sensitive and requires additional protection.
A failure to adhere to data protection laws could lead to a personal data breach. This is where your personal data has been lost, destroyed or altered either accidentally or unlawfully in a security breach. It can also mean your personal data has been accessed or disclosed without authorisation.
If your personal data has been involved in an army data breach and you were affected financially or emotionally, please call our team to find out what steps you could potentially take.
How Could A Data Breach Occur?
There are several ways a personal data breach could occur, such as through human error or as a result of a cyber security incident. Examples of how these could occur include:
- An email containing sensitive information being sent to the wrong email address, despite an organisation having the correct one on file.
- A ransomware attack, in which personal data is stolen, occurs as a result of an organisation failing to keep their cyber security systems up to date.
- Physical files, containing your personal information, are stolen due to them being left in an open filing cabinet.
To discuss your specific case and find out whether you’re eligible to seek data breach compensation, call our team of advisors on the number above.
How Could A Data Breach Impact You?
Following a personal data breach, you could potentially suffer from financial losses or harm to your mental health. For example, you may suffer emotional distress or anxiety after a data breach that has compromised sensitive information.
Additionally, financial losses could be caused if you have had to take time off work to recover from the psychological impact of the breach.
In cases where you’re eligible to make a data breach claim, compensation could be awarded to address the way you have been impacted.
If you have evidence that you were affected emotionally or financially as a result of an army data breach, call an advisor to learn what steps you could potentially take.
What Steps Can I Take After My Personal Data Was Breached?
There are certain steps you could take following a breach of your personal data.
Firstly, you may receive an email or notice letter informing you that your personal data was breached. Alternatively, you may have discovered the breach yourself. If so, you can make a direct complaint to the organisation responsible and ask them to clarify what personal information was compromised and what action they plan to take.
If the organisation fails to give you a satisfactory response or does not respond at all, you could report the breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO is the independent body set to uphold information rights for data subjects. Following your report, the ICO may investigate the data breach. If they do and it favours your case, their findings could be used as evidence to support your claim.
To find out what steps you could potentially take following an army data breach, contact our advisors today.
What Could You Claim In Compensation For A Data Breach?
When making a personal data breach claim, there are two areas of compensation you may be able to pursue. One is compensation for the non-material damage you have experienced as a result of the breach. This type of damage refers to the psychological injuries you suffer, such as anxiety.
Evidence of any mental harm can be used alongside the guideline compensation brackets in the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) to help solicitors value your mental injuries. We have included some of these figures in the table below. However, how much compensation you receive will depend on your claim, so please only use this table as a guide.
Type of Harm | Amount – Guideline |
---|---|
Psychological Harm : Severe (a) | £54,830 – £115,730 |
Psychological Harm : Moderately Severe (b) | £19,070 – £54,830 |
Psychological Harm : Moderate (c) | £5,860 – £19,070 |
Psychological Harm : Less Severe (d) | £1,540 – £5,860 |
Anxiety Disorder : Severe (a) | £59,860 – £100,670 |
Anxiety Disorder : Moderately Severe (b) | £23,150 – £59,860 |
Anxiety Disorder : Moderate (c) | £8,180 – £23,150 |
Anxiety Disorder : Less Severe (d) | £3,950 – £8,180 |
Additionally, you could be awarded compensation to address the material damage you experienced due to the breach. This type of damage refers to the financial losses you have incurred.
Evidence of these losses will be needed, such as wage slips to prove any loss of earnings from time taken off work to recover from the emotional impact of the breach.
To learn more about data breach compensation, speak with an advisor via the number above.
Talk To Us If You Have Been Affected By An Army Data Breach
When making a personal data breach claim, you might want to consider legal representation. If so, our panel of solicitors could potentially help by offering a specific type of No Win No Fee agreement called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA).
A CFA comes with many benefits, including:
- Generally, you don’t pay anything upfront to the solicitor for their services or to start your claim.
- You usually don’t have to pay the solicitor for their services if the claim fails.
- The solicitor will take a success fee from your compensation if they win your claim. However, the amount they can take is restricted by law, meaning you can keep the majority of your compensation.
To be put into contact with one of the data breach solicitors from our panel, contact our advisors today. Our friendly team is available 24/7 to help answer your questions and offer you free advice.
Additionally, they can help if you’re still wondering what potential steps you could take if you were affected by an army data breach.
To get in touch, you can:
- Call on 0800 408 7825
- Contact us online.
- Use the live chat function for an instant response.
Further Data Breach Resources
If you would like to read more articles by us about personal data breach claims:
- What are my rights after a lost files data protection breach?
- When could you claim for an accidental workplace data breach?
- How to deal with a data protection breach
For more external resources:
- GOV – Find out what data an organisation has about you
- NHS – Mental health
- ICO – Data security incident trends
If you have any more questions about what steps you could take if you were affected by an army data breach, please contact our advisors.
Article by EE
Publisher EI