Midlands News Association suffer security incident leading to data breach

It has been confirmed that the independent publisher Midlands News Association suffered a data security incident which revealed personal information and bank details belonging to journalists.

The names, addresses, bank account details, National Insurance numbers and dates of birth of a number of former employees were published online by an unauthorised third party.

Midlands News Association have refused to reveal exactly how many employees have been affected by the data breach, although the publication Hold the Front Page have reported that employees from as long ago as 2011 may be affected.

Graeme Clifford, managing director at Midlands News Association, wrote a letter to the affected individuals, where he confirmed that the publisher first discovered the incident on 14 January.

It was then found that an unauthorised third party had accessed certain folders on the company’s systems and published the information online on 22 February.

Midlands News Association confirmed “We are engaging with law enforcement to consider what steps can be taken to try to stop continued publication of the data.”

Midlands News Association has offered affected individuals 12 months of credit and identity monitoring free of charge and has also set up a helpline.

If you have been contacted by the Midlands News Association to inform you that your data was exposed in the data breach, or you have strong reason to believe that this is the case, you may have grounds to claim compensation.

The team at Hayes Connor are ready to advise anyone who may have been affected by the Midlands News Association data breach. To find out more about how you can make a claim, please get in touch.

What to do if you are worried about the Midlands News Association data breach

If you are one of the individuals who has been affected by the Midlands News Association data breach, the publisher should have already been in touch with you. If you have not received any communication and you are worried that you have been affected, your first port of call should be to get in touch with them directly.

As it has been confirmed that the data has been published online, cybercriminals may be able to use it with fraudulent intent.

It is therefore vital that you are vigilant of any emails, phone calls or communication from anyone claiming to be representing Midlands News Association. There is a chance that these could be ‘phishing attacks’ which are carefully designed to extract further sensitive information from you.

To minimise the risk of your data being used by cybercriminals, there are a number of steps you can take. To find out more, read of guide to what to do if your data has been stolen in a data breach.

You may also want to consider whether you are entitled to compensation following the Midlands News Association data breach. This is something the team at Hayes Connor can assist you with.

How Hayes Connor can help you claim compensation for the Midlands News Association data breach

Any organisation that holds your personal data has a legal obligation to keep it secure. Failure to uphold this obligation is a serious offence, and anyone affected may therefore have grounds to claim compensation.

Hayes Connor has one of the largest teams of dedicated data breach specialists in the country, with a wealth of combined experience. This means we are well placed to provide expert advice if you believe that your data has been exposed in a breach.

Our team of experts will provide tailored advice that will help you to clarify whether you have grounds to make a claim, how the claims process will work and the level of compensation you may be entitled to.

Our aim is to make sure that anyone affected by a data breach is able to access the compensation they deserve, while also making the claims process as simple and straightforward as possible.

You can find out more about our expertise and how we handle data breach claims here.

To start a claim, you can use our online claim form.

To speak to a member of our team, please do not hesitate to give us a call on 0330 041 5135.