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The 10 most prominent data breaches since 2004, today Friday 10 June 2022 09:01 pm
Published in the homeland on 10 – 06 – 2022
As our world becomes increasingly dependent on technology and data stored online, data breaches have become a systemic threat to users, businesses, and government agencies. In 2021 a new record was set with more than 5.9 billion user records stolen.
A graph from Chimdi Nwosu depicts the 10 biggest data breaches since 2004, along with the sectors most affected. The data was compiled from company statements and news reports.
Understand the basics of a data breach
A data breach is an incident in which sensitive or confidential information is copied, transmitted, or stolen by an unauthorized party. This can happen as a result of malware attacks, payment card fraud, internal leaks, or accidental disclosure. The target data is often customer personally identifiable information (PII), employee personally identifiable information, intellectual property, company data, or government agency data. History violations can be committed by lone hackers, organized cybercrime groups, or even national governments. The stolen information can then be used for other criminal enterprises such as identity theft or credit card fraud or kept for ransom payment.
Noted violations
The largest data breach recorded occurred in 2013 when information on three billion Yahoo accounts was compromised. In this cyber attack, hackers managed to collect personal information and passwords of users. While the full scope of the Yahoo data breach has not been fully investigated, subsequent cybercrimes around the world have been linked to the stolen information. The massive Yahoo hack accounted for nearly 30% of the 9.9 billion user records stolen from the web sector – the sector most affected by far. The next two sectors most affected were technology and finance, with 2 billion and 1.6 billion records stolen respectively. Although these three sectors have the highest totals of lost user data, this does not necessarily mean that they have the weakest security measures. Alternatively, this can most likely be attributed to the huge number of user logs they collect.
Infamous data breaches
Not all nefarious data breaches are widespread. A small data breach in 2014 made headlines when Apple’s iCloud service was hacked and the personal photos of nearly 200 celebrities were posted online. Although this highly targeted hack affected only a few hundred people, it highlighted the severity of the data breaches that can be harmful to users.
The cost of data breaches for businesses
Each year, data breaches cost companies billions of dollars to prevent and contain, while eroding consumer confidence, and potentially having a negative impact on customer retention.
IBM’s 2021 Security Report estimated that the average cost of a data breach for businesses in 2020 was $4.2 million, which is a 10% increase over 2019. This increase is mainly due to the additional security risks associated with having more people working remotely due to the pandemic. Covid-19.
Measures to improve data security
Preventing data breaches completely is essentially impossible, as cybercrime organizations are often static, dynamic, and evolving. However, companies can look for innovative ways to prevent data exposure and reduce potential harm.
For example, following the iCloud attack in 2014, Apple began aggressively encouraging users to adopt two-factor authentication in an effort to enhance data security.
No matter what measures companies take, the unfortunate reality is that data breaches are a cost of doing business in the modern world and will continue to be a concern for both businesses and users.
Yahoo 3.0B 2013
River City Media 1.4B 2017
Aadhaar 1.1B 2018
First American Corporation 885M 2019
Spambot 711M 2017
Linkedin 700M 2021
Facebook 533M 2021
Yahoo 500M 2014
Marriott International 500M 2018
Syniverse 500M 2021
