Beyond our Shores - July

This is the ODPA's monthly round-up of data-related developments from around the world.

On 1 July 2024, Ticketmaster owner Live Nation confirmed "unauthorised activity" on its database after a group of hackers said they had stolen the personal details of 560 million customers. Shiny Hunters, the group claiming responsibility, says the stolen data includes names, addresses, phone numbers and partial credit card details from Ticketmaster users worldwide: Ticketmaster confirms data hack - BBC News

On 15 July 2024, UK privacy watchdog the Information Commissioner’s Office called for water companies to come clean with public over sewage pollution: Information Commissioner calls for water companies to be crystal clear with public over sewage pollution | ICO

On 19 July 2024, a mistake in a security software update sparked hours-long global computer systems outages, another incident highlighting the vulnerability of the world's interconnected technologies: Tech outage eases after widespread disruption | Reuters

On 22 July 2024, the BBC reported that communications regulator Ofcom had fined telecommunications giant BT £17.5m for a “catastrophic failure” of its emergency call handling service. BT fined millions for failing to connect 999 calls - BBC News

On 23 July 2024, the Guardian reported on official figures released by Central Statistics Office which revealed that Ireland’s energy-hungry datacentres consumed more electricity last year than all of its urban homes combined. Ireland’s datacentres overtake electricity use of all urban homes combined | Ireland | The Guardian

On 25 July 2024, on the eve of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Fortune published an article examining the extent to which AI’s presence at the Olympics provides a snapshot of how quickly AI is being implemented in so many different areas from live events to broadcast, advertising, athlete performance, law enforcement, and state surveillance: Paris Olympics embraces AI—for better and worse | Fortune

On 30 July 2024, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) issued a reprimand to the Electoral Commission, which oversees UK elections, after hackers gained access to servers that contained the personal information of approximately 40 million people. In August 2021, hackers successfully accessed the Electoral Commission’s Microsoft Exchange Server by impersonating a user account and exploiting known software vulnerabilities in the system that had not been secured. Until October 2022 – over a year later – the attackers had access to the personal information held on the Electoral Register, including names and home addresses: ICO reprimands the Electoral Commission after cyber attack compromises servers | ICO

On 30 July 2024, a global outage affecting Microsoft products including email service Outlook and video game Minecraft for nearly 12 hours was resolved, the technology giant said. The firm said preliminary investigations show the outage was caused by a cyber-attack and a failure to properly defend against it: Microsoft apologises after thousands report new outage (bbc.com)