Labour Party data breach event

It is understood that the Labour Party data breach event stemmed from a ransomware cyberattack that was initiated at the end of October 2021.

The Labour Party was forced to write to members at the start of November to confirm that their personal information could be affected by the incident. Recent data shows that Labour Party membership numbers are in the region of half a million, so we could easily be talking about hundreds of thousands of people being affected in the event of any information caught up in the attack is misused or exposed.

We continue to monitor developments of this incident closely, and we are taking on claims for data breach compensation now. If personal information is misused or exposed, victims affected could be entitled to pursue a data breach compensation claim now.

About the Labour Party data breach

The Labour Party data breach is understood to have not directly affected the Party’s own systems. Instead, it involved a third party storing and processing information for its members being hit by a cyberattack, which was understood to be a financially motivated ransomware attack. It is not believed that Labour Party information was specifically being targeted and that hackers had hit the third party in efforts to extort money from them.

If any personal information for affected members is subsequently misused or exposed as a result of the cyberattack, this may cause considerable and understandable distress. Victims of the data breach could be entitled to claim data breach compensation if this is the case. Our specialist team of Group Action Lawyers is able to offer No Win, No Fee legal representation for eligible clients.

Scams and fraud warnings

What has followed the Labour Party data breach is the usual warnings of those affected potentially being targeted by fraudsters and scammers aiming to steal money or abuse personal data in their possession. Whilst it is not yet known as to whether this could happen or not, if any information is exposed, it could be sold on the dark web. This is when it could fall into the hands of criminals who could then target people to commit crime.

We often use the TalkTalk example when we discuss these threats. Following the massive cyberattack that hit them back in 2015, customers received calls from scammers who knew of open issues and complaints they had, and had access to their personal contact details and account details. Some managed to successfully convince people they were TalkTalk and needed to gain access to their computers to assist with resolving an issue. They then duped people into logging into bank accounts where they could scam people into transferring thousands of pounds to them.

One to watch

The specialist team here at The Group Action Lawyers represent thousands of people who have been affected in dozens of data breach incidents, some with similar circumstances to the Labour Party data breach. We are all too familiar with these events, and we will be keeping a close eye on this one in terms of whether anyone’s personal and sensitive data is exposed.

Our team is now representing victims of this data breach. If any information is exposed or misused as a direct result of this cyberattack, we may be able to represent victims for data breach compensation claims now.