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UK’s Antitrust Regulator Suffers 150 Data Breaches In Two Years

By  |  February 9, 2021

The UK government’s antitrust regulator was hit by 150 personal data breaches in the last two years, as hackers targeted its trove of sensitive business information, reported Bloomberg. 

The Competition and Markets Authority found 81 cases of unauthorized disclosure of information and 40 devices were lost or stolen — two of them unencrypted — according to freedom of information documents.

The watchdog handles internal business reports, copies of emails and other internal data. Leaks could potentially allow interested parties to profit from such data or even attempt to influence the outcome of a takeover, although there was no evidence that the CMA’s investigations were compromised.

The number of breaches was higher than the 145 recorded in the previous two-year period from 2017 to 2018. They also included two hacks and four cases of malicious software. There were 11 successful phishing attempts, in which fraudsters pose as legitimate counter-parties to access sensitive information.