What Was the Easyjet Data Breach Scandal?
In the Easyjet data breach scandal, around 9 million Easyjet passengers’ personal details were accessed after the company suffered a highly sophisticated cyber-attack. As a result, 2,208 credit card details were stolen and email addresses and travel details were accessed. Anyone who booked an Easyjet flight between October 2019 – March 2020 could be affected by the Easyjet data breach scandal.
In the UK, when a company becomes aware of a data breach, it must report the breach to The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and then all the affected parties have to be informed. Easyjet didn’t notify those who suffered from the attack until May 2020 after they became aware of the leak in January 2020.
Why Was the Easyjet Data Breach Scandal So Serious?
When criminals steal data through a cyber attack they may collect enough personal information to be able to do serious damage in the future too. They could create fraudulent bank accounts and make payments online or even apply for loans using stolen credit card details. In other cases, email addresses could be used as part of phishing scams to lure people into clicking harmful links or extracting more personal information that they can leverage to commit further crimes. As such, the effects of a data breach can cause issues for the victims and have lasting emotional damage such as sleepless nights, distress, and anxiousness.
Can I Claim Compensation For the Easyjet Data Breach?
Yes, you can claim compensation if you were affected by this Easyjet data breach. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) gives you the right to claim compensation from a company if you have suffered as a result of a data protection breach. The damages you suffered could be “material” such as losing money if your credit card details were stolen for instance, or “non-material” if you experienced distress.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which is the UK’s independent body that supports information rights says that before you take a compensation claim to court, the first step is to contact Easyjet first to see if you can reach an agreement. If an agreement cannot be reached, the next step is to write to Easyjet to notify them that you will be taking the matter to court and attaching a pre-action protocol which must be done before any legal proceedings. Compensation will be calculated based on how serious the infringement was and to what degree it affected you.
If you were a victim of the Easyjet data breach, we advise you to seek legal advice to gain the compensation you deserve. Often when a data breach occurs, companies are reluctant to fully compensate their victims and are more concerned about limiting their exposure.
What Should I Do if I Have Suffered From the Easyjet Data Breach Scandal?
At Johnson Law Group we are acting on behalf of all those affected by the Easyjet cyberattack who want to make a claim for compensation due to the material and non-material losses they experienced. If you received an email from Easyjet at the time of the data leak, we advise you to get legal advice on what your next steps should be.
We operate under the “NO WIN – NO FEE” agreement which means that we have no upfront fees and no liability for our costs if we do not win your data breach claim.
