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University of Bolton Data Breach Compensation Claims Guide

Welcome to our guide to the University of Bolton data breach claims. If you’ve been harmed financially by a data breach, you might already be aware that, under GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, you could make a data breach compensation claim. But did you also know that you could make a data breach compensation claim against the organisation for emotional distress, including loss of sleep, anxiety and stress caused by a Bolton University data breach?

University Of Bolton data breach claims guide

University Of Bolton data breach claims guide

This guide offers a wealth of information about making a data breach claim against the University of Bolton. In it, we discuss a variety of ways in which your personal data could be breached, as well as explaining the laws and regulations that universities must abide by when it comes to the protection of personal information.

We also show you how you could go about making a claim with help from our data breach solicitors. If you’d like us to check your eligibility to make a claim, or you have some questions about doing so, please call our expert advisors on 0800 073 8804. We’d be happy to help you, and all advice is free of charge.

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Your Guide To Data Breach Claims Against The University of Bolton

Whether you’ve been affected by a University of Bolton data breach that has occurred due to an incident involving hacking, phishing, malware, employee error, or another cybersecurity incident, if it can be proven that Bolton University has broken data protection laws and your data has been breached, they could face enforcement action by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

If you can prove that you’ve been impacted by a data breach financially or psychologically, you could be eligible to make a data breach compensation claim against them too.

Making a data breach claim against the University of Bolton would involve you proving that they had breached your personal data, and that the breach of your data had caused you to experience material or non-material damages (more on this below).

You’d need to make your claim within the data breach claims time limit too – 1 year for breaches of human rights, and 6 years for data breaches. While you may be able to make such claims without legal support, there are certain benefits to having a legal professional on your side as you make your claim. We’ll explain more about this in the later sections of this guide.

We also explain more about what could constitute data breach cases, as well as giving you information about the data protection breach compensation amount you could claim. We hope you find this guide useful; if you have any questions about anything contained within it, we’d be happy to help you over the phone.

What Constitutes A Data Breach Claim Against The University of Bolton?

Organisations that control and process data have legal obligations towards those persons whose data they process and store. They must abide by GDPR and by the Data Protection Act 2018. While many universities attempt to protect the data they hold with a robust internet security policy, and other data security policies, sometimes things could go wrong, and if they do, this could lead to your data being breached.

What Is A Data Breach Case?

A data breach consists of an incident where your data is unlawfully or accidentally:

  • Lost
  • Stolen
  • Accessed, processed, transmitted, disclosed, altered or stored without authorisation
  • Made unavailable

Whether your information is held on a Bolton University database or is held by a third party database provider, you would expect that it would hold your data securely. If, however, someone was to gain unauthorised access to such a database, they could get hold of your personal details, and this could have a number of unwanted consequences. But this is not the only way in which your data could be breached. It could occur due to a:

  • DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) Attack
  • A virus
  • A cyber attack
  • An employee error
  • A hack
  • Theft or loss of devices containing personal information
  • Ransomware
  • Malware

These are just a few examples.

How Could A Data Breach Affect Me?

The unwanted consequences of a Bolton University data breach could include:

  • Your personal data being sold – stolen data could be sold to a third party without your authorisation
  • Physical theft – your data could be used to steal from you or to make purchases in your name
  • Identity theft – someone could use your data to apply for loans or credit cards, for example
  • Loss of course material – if your university research material was accessed, lost or stolen, this could affect your studies
  • Loss of privacy
  • Psychological harm – You may feel worried about what could happen to your data if you’ve suffered a University of Bolton data breach. You could lose sleep, become anxious stressed or depressed

A data protection compensation payout could help not only address the financial impact of a data breach but could also compensate you for the stress, worry and loss of sleep you’ve consequently suffered.

How Does GDPR Apply To University And Higher Education Settings

GDPR, as the strongest data security and privacy law in the world, affects any organisation that controls and processes data relating to EU citizens, including universities. It protects the data of all EU subjects, no matter where the organisation processing or storing the data is based.

In order to comply with GDPR, universities must abide by its 7 principles, which are:

  1. Transparency, lawfulness and fairness – the processing of personal data must happen in a fair and lawful manner and must be transparent to the subject
  2. Limitation of purpose – data must be processed for legitimate purposes that have been explicitly specified to the person on collection
  3. Minimisation of data – only as much data as is required for the specified purposes should be collected and processed
  4. Accuracy – organisations must keep the personal data they have updated and accurate
  5. Limitation of storage – data must only be kept for as long as the purpose necessitates it
  6. Confidentiality/integrity – any processing must be completed in a way that ensures appropriate security, which could include using encryption, for example.
  7. Accountability – the organisation has a responsibility to demonstrate its compliance.

Data subjects who can show that they have been harmed by a breach of data protection could seek compensation for material and non-material damage they’ve sustained as a result of the breach. If you’re unsure as to whether you could claim for a University of Bolton data breach, please call our team. We’d be happy to check your eligibility for free.

Has The University Of Bolton Been Affected By A Data Breach?

While we have not been able to find any incidences of data breaches by Bolton University, we can confirm that some universities have suffered data breaches. Incidents include:

The Blackbaud hack – in May 2020, a database company holding the information of students, staff and alumni at the following universities were subjected to a ransomware attack:

  • Cumbria University
  • Loughborough University
  • Oxford Brookes University
  • University College, Oxford
  • University of Exeter
  • University of Leeds
  • University of London
  • University of Reading
  • University of York

It was reported that Blackbaud, the company providing database services, paid the perpetrator a ransom to destroy the data. However, the personal details of those impacted were subjected to unauthorised access. The details breached included:

  • Name (including title)
  • Date of birth
  • Address
  • Contact information
  • Gender

While no financial information was thought to have been breached, this still represents a significant breach of personal data.

Another incident involved Greenwich University, which was fined £120,000 by the ICO in 2018 due to a data breach of almost 20,000 people’s personal data.

If either of these breaches can be shown to have caused a victim to suffer financial or psychological harm, they could claim a breach of data protection compensation. If you can prove that you have been affected financially or psychologically by a University of Bolton data breach incident, you could claim too.

Statistics About Data Breaches Affecting Universities

According to a report by IT Governance, a large number of universities in the UK (54%) reported a data breach to the ICO in 2018/19. It is also reported that less than half of university staff have been given security training, with only around half of students being offered awareness training.

In 2019, university internet service provider Jisc conducted safety tests on universities systems, and staggeringly, were able to access over 50 of the universities that were tested within the space of 2 hours.

It is clear that without a robust data security plan, universities could be leaving themselves open to those looking to access data for nefarious purposes.

Source: https://www.itgovernance.co.uk/blog/54-of-universities-reported-a-data-breach-in-the-past-year

Cyber Criminal Attacks On UK Universities

Cybercriminals could attack UK universities in a variety of ways. Some of the most common types of breach could include:

  • Stolen information
  • Ransomware
  • Password guessing
  • Recording keystrokes
  • Phishing
  • Malware/Viruses
  • DDoS attacks

The Effects Of Cyber Attacks On Universities

Not only could a university have to pay compensation for a breach of the Data Protection Act 2018 to someone who has suffered material or non-material damage, but they could also face fines from the ICO as the result of a data breach they should have prevented.

In addition to this, loss of public confidence in a university’s ability to keep data secure could result in lower enrolment numbers, and less funding.

How You May Be Compensated If Your Data Privacy Was Breached

There are various different ways in which you could receive compensation in a successful University of Bolton data breach claim. If you have suffered financially due to such a breach, the impact of the monetary losses you suffered could be calculated, but you could also receive compensation for psychological harm and loss of privacy.

The Impact Of Vidal-Hall and others v Google Inc [2015] – Court of Appeal,

The above case set a legal precedent when it came to claiming psychological injuries caused by a data breach.

In this case, it was held that psychological injuries caused by the breach of personal data could be considered, even in the absence of financial harm. This allows claimants who have suffered effects on their mental health, such as anxiety, stress, depression or loss of sleep due to a breach, to claim compensation for the harm that they’ve suffered.

Calculating Compensation For A Data Breach Claim Against The University of Bolton

In order for the amount of compensation for your data breach claim to be calculated, all of the evidence would have to be taken into account. This includes evidence of financial harm you suffered due to a University of Bolton data breach.

When it comes to calculating compensation for psychological harm, however, you would have to visit an independent medical expert. This expert would assess your psychological injuries, and compile a report verifying your injuries and detailing your prognosis for the future. This is what would be used to hone in on an appropriate value for your claim.

In the below table, we have looked to the Judicial College Guidelines to ascertain how much compensation could be appropriate for various levels of psychological injury.

We hope these figures give you some insight into the level of compensation that your case could bring, but if you have any questions, we would be happy to discuss them over the phone.

Edit
Injuries Approximate Compensation Bracket Explanation
Severe psychiatric injury £51,460 to £108,620 Significant impacts on the person’s ability to deal with work, education, life in general and relationships would be seen. The impact of any treatment sought would be assessed.
Moderately severe psychiatric injury £17,900 to £51,460 The impact on the injured party could be similar to the above but they would have a more positive future prognosis.
Moderate psychiatric injury £5,500 to £17,900 The impact on the injured party could be similar to the above but they would have effected some recovery by resolution of the claim and would also have a good future prognosis.
Less severe psychiatric injury Up to £5,500 The impacts on daily activities work and sleep would be assessed. So would the length and severity of injury.
Severe post-traumatic stress disorder £56,180 to £94,470 The trauma would have impacted each aspect of the person’s life with permanent damage. There would be no chance of the affected person functioning in the way they did pre-trauma.
Moderately severe post-traumatic stress disorder £21,730 to £56,180 There might have been some benefits of professional treatment and a more positive future prognosis but effects would still be significant and last for the foreseeable future.
Moderate post-traumatic stress disorder £7,680 to £21,730 A good level of recovery would have been achieved with no continuing gross disablements.
Less severe post-traumatic stress disorder Up to £7,680 The affected person would have achieved almost a full recovery between 1 and 2 years.

How Do You Find A Solicitor Specialising In Data Breach Cases?

If you are considering making a University of Bolton data breach claim, you might be seeking the assistance of a solicitor. This could be beneficial to your case in a number of ways:

  1. A data breach solicitor could build a strong case for compensation and take the legal leg work off your shoulders
  2. They could help to negotiate the maximum payout possible for your case
  3. They would make sure you didn’t miss out on any type of compensation you could be entitled to
  4. They could ensure action was taken within the correct limitation period

Finding a data breach solicitor is easy when you contact Legal Expert. One call to us and you could quickly get answers to any questions that you may have about making a claim. Not only that but we could check your eligibility for free.

None of this would put you under any obligation to use our services. However, if we do feel that you could have a valid data breach claim against Bolton University, we could provide you with a solicitor working on a No Win no fee basis to help you fight for compensation.

Why Choose Us For A University Of Bolton Data Breach Claim?

We recognise that there are lots of companies offering similar services to us. However, we believe we are well placed to offer you a superb service. We have many years of experience helping claimants with a wide range of claims and many of our clients recommend us, as you can see from our reviews.

We’d be happy to chat with you about your case and how we could help you in more detail. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

No Win No Fee Data Breach Claims Against The University of Bolton

If you’ve been affected by a University of Bolton data breach as a result of malware, phishing or employee error, the benefits of using a solicitor are clear. Did you know you could retain the services of a data breach solicitor without having to pay any legal fees until and if your Bolton University data breach claim was successfully concluded, and compensation was paid out?

This is what is known as a No Win No Fee claim, which is documented under a contract called a Conditional Fee Agreement. You’d need to sign one of these at the beginning of any No Win No Fee claim. Within the agreement, a success fee is referenced, which you would only have to pay if your claim was concluded successfully. If compensation was not recovered, then you would not be required to pay this success fee, nor would you pay your solicitor’s costs.

If you are wondering how much the success fee would be, this is usually a small percentage of your total payout. It is also legally capped.

All Legal Expert’s data breach solicitors work under these terms. If you would like to learn more about making a claim under a Conditional Fee Agreement, we have produced a detailed guide which you’ll find in the reference section below. Or, if you’d like to ask us any questions over the phone, we would be happy to help.

Speaking To Claims Team

If you’re now ready to begin a University of Bolton data breach claim, we are ready to help you. Alternatively, if you still have questions or would like to check your eligibility for free, our advisors will be glad to assist. You can get in touch with us in any of the following ways.

Related Services

No Win No Fee – This guide, which shows you how a No Win No Fee solicitor could help you, offers detailed information regarding this type of payment arrangement.

My Employer Breached My Data – If you’re claiming against an employer that has breached your personal information, this guide could be useful.

Police Data Breaches – This guide offers some insight into making claims against the police for breach of your data protection rights.

Requesting Data About Exam Results – This page on the ICO website shows how you could request examination data.

Mental Health Advice NHS – If you’re suffering anxiety, depression or the symptoms of stress, this NHS guide could be useful.

Report A Data Breach – If you’d like to report a breach of your personal information this guide from the ICO could be useful. It also gives some examples of what could constitute a breach.

Other Useful Compensation Guides

Thank you for reading our guide to the University of Bolton data breach claims.

 

Guide by Jeffries

Edited by Billing

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      Patrick is a Grade A solicitor having qualified in 2005. He's an an expert in accident at work and public liability claims and is currently our head of the EL/PL department. Get in touch today for free to see how we can help you.

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