Lancaster University Data Breach

In July 2019, Lancaster University admitted that they had suffered a data breach through a hack to their IT systems which had resulted in the compromise/theft of personal details of students and people applying to study at the university. The data breach is said to include names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers.

This theft of personal data by cyber criminals has led to some students receiving false invoices and attempts to elicit money from them by using their own personal data to fake the legitimacy of the invoices and emails that some students have received.

How do I know if my data has been breached by Lancaster University?

Lancaster university has said that it will contact all of the students involved in the data breach, but the timescale for this is not known and it is unclear just how many students have been involved. Anyone studying at or applying to the university in the last couple of years could have been affected.

Who are we?

Fletchers Data Claims is a legal service provided by Fletchers Solicitors, a Top 100 UK Law Firm with over 30 years experience of fighting for consumer rights. If you have been the victim of a data breach then you may be entitled to claim for compensation for any losses or damage caused, as well as the distress that the incident has caused. The Fletchers Data Claims service is there to represent your interests and help you claim back the compensation you are entitled to either through an individual claim against the organisation that breached your data or in some cases, through representing you and others are part of a large group action (often called a ‘class action’).

How do I claim?

If your data was part of the Lancaster University data breach then you may be entitled to compensation for the distress caused by the breach. Even if you are lucky and the breach did not result in any specific loss or damage, you are still rightly entitled by law to claim compensation for the distress caused by the incident. It is important that organisations like Lancaster University treat your data lawfully and with care and respect, and are held to account when they fail to do so.

In most cases of claim for distress following a data breach, the minimum level of damages to be sought at a settlement stands between £750 to £1,000, but with any data breach the value could be much higher depending on the circumstances and effects of the breach.

If the breach has caused you specific losses and damages or was particularly sensitive in nature then the amount of compensation could be significantly higher. For example, if your details were used to falsely obtain money from you then you may be entitled to a higher amount of compensation as well as claiming back any funds that were handed over. This is why it is important to contact a knowledgeable legal team like us to ensure that your case is properly assessed and the right amount of compensation is awarded.

All advice provided is free of charge and if we take your case on, we always work on a no win-no fee basis. That means if your claim following a data breach is not successful, you will not be charged a penny.