Data Breaches

Avoid data breaches by knowing the latest important data breaches with our unique insights. We identify data breaches on which we can do case studies to help you learn and improve. A data breach is a type of privacy incident that happens whenever an unauthorised person could have gotten access to someone else’s personal data.

Only some are linked below. To read all previous insights and be alerted to future insights, join the relevant Michalsons programme. You can view the public and the “Members only” ones if you are a member and logged in.

Data subject breach notification

Imagine a castle under siege, and the guards fail to alert the inhabitants. In the world of data protection, data subject breach notifications act as crucial alarms, ensuring individuals are aware of threats to their personal data. Data protection laws, [...]

By |2024-06-10T17:15:57+02:00June 10th, 2024|Categories: Cybersecurity Law, POPI and Data Protection|Tags: , , , , , , , |
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HIPAA health breach notification update

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently updated the HIPAA Health Breach Notification Rule (HBNR) to better safeguard consumer health information in today's digital age. This update is particularly relevant for organisations that handle health data, including those that may [...]

By |2024-05-22T08:45:20+02:00April 30th, 2024|Categories: POPI and Data Protection|Tags: , , , , |
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IEC Security Compromise: a case study on notifying the regulator

With the general elections set to be held on 29 May 2024, the last thing South Africans want to hear are details of a security compromise at the IEC. On the other hand, the Information Regulator is in need [...]

By |2025-09-25T15:56:52+02:00April 2nd, 2024|Categories: POPI and Data Protection|Tags: , , , , , |
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The CIPC data breach – an overview of the security compromise

There are organisations we pray will never suffer a data breach. The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) is one of those. They hold many people's data. In fact, there is hardly anyone who formally does business in South Africa [...]

By |2024-03-01T21:53:18+02:00March 1st, 2024|Categories: POPI and Data Protection|Tags: , , |
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Webinar | Responding to incidents | Members only

Data breaches, hacks and leaks happen to all organisations sooner or later – because if you have gold in your house, someone will try to break in. You can’t always prevent them, but you can prepare to reply to them [...]

By |2024-02-28T15:59:53+02:00February 5th, 2024|Categories: , |Tags: |
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Insights from the regulator

On Friday, 6 October, I listened in on an interesting interview with Adv Pansy Tlakula. She shared some interesting insights about the regulator's work, the status of certain enforcements and some projects they are working on. I decided to share [...]

By |2023-10-11T06:33:02+02:00October 11th, 2023|Categories: POPI and Data Protection|Tags: , , , , |
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Dis-Chem enforcement notice | data breach

The information regulator issued a Dis-Chem enforcement notice to Dis-Chem Pharmacies for non-compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). In April 2022, an unauthorised party gained access to more than 3 million data subjects' records from Dis-Chem's database. [...]

By |2024-02-27T11:01:01+02:00September 1st, 2023|Categories: Cybersecurity Law, POPI and Data Protection|Tags: , , , |
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