Data breach due to processing error.

A public services report that identified sensitive and personal information about Sarah* and her family was mistakenly posted to a random person. The most likely cause of the breach was a processing error when sending the report with a covering letter. Unfortunately this is a common yet dangerous occurrence in large and small organisations.

As a result, Sarah felt compromised in her dealings with the public body, and became stressed and anxious that the information would fall into the wrong hands. She was able to make a data breach claim which took into account the initial breach and the subsequent impact.

*Not real name