Privacy advocates claim parliament doesn't detect breaches or know the cause.
The advocacy group NOYB has filed two complaints against the European Parliament, accusing it of inadequately protecting employees' personal data.
In a statement, NOYB said it has lodged two complaints with the European Data Protection Supervisor on behalf of four parliament employees after the European Parliament suffered a breach in May of this year, which affected 8000 staff.
NOYB said the Parliament only found out about the breach months after it happened, and still doesn’t seem to know the cause. The group also claimed that the Parliament isn't complying with the GDPR's data minimisation and retention requirements, and the breached files contained specially protected sensitive data under Article 9, which can reveal people’s ethnicity, political opinions, religious beliefs or sexual orientation
NOYB chairman Max Schrems said “the breach shows that just getting rid of personal data in time could likely have limited the impact of the breach.”
Therefore, NOYB has filed the two complaints with the EDPS alleging that the EU Parliament appears to have breached Articles 4(1)(c) and (f) and 33(1) of the EU GDPR.
Written by
Dan Raywood
Senior Editor
SC Media UK
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with more than 20 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 16 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Conference, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and ESET Security Days.
Outside work, Dan enjoys supporting Tottenham Hotspur, managing mischievous cats, and sampling craft beers.
