Every day, businesses and organizations are faced with a new challenge: how to protect their customer’s data.
With the increase of new technologies, data breaches have become more commonplace and pose a serious threat to both companies and their customers.
In this article, we will take a look at some of the biggest data breaches in history and what lessons can be learned from them.
We will also discuss ways that people can protect themselves online and keep their information safe. Stay safe out there!
The Sony Hack
A recent high-profile hack was Sony Pictures.
This is one of the worst hacks ever perpetrated, with employees’ personal information leaked all over the web and even threats issued by hacker group “Guardians of Peace.”
Sony has gone to extreme lengths to try and contain the problem; unfortunately for them, it seems like the hackers are one step ahead of them at every turn.
The whole debacle continues to create a lot of bad PR for Sony and they’re not out of the woods yet, in spite of having offered to reimburse credit monitoring and identity theft protection.
The only silver lining in this situation was that the information leaked in the hack has sparked an important conversation about cybersecurity and best practices for companies to keep their information safe.
Target Hack
Retail giant Target was hacked in 2013, exposing the credit card details of around 70 million customers.
In this case, hackers stole log-in credentials from a heating and air conditioning company contractor working at Target which enabled them to gain access to Target’s system.
Once in, they were able to install malware on Target’s point-of-sale machines which allowed them to grab credit card details of over 70 million customers.
A class action lawsuit was filed against Target for failing to keep customer information safe and some banks are seeking reimbursement for the cost of reissuing cards.
JP Morgan Chase Hack
In 2014, JP Morgan Chase was hacked in a cyber attack that exposed over 76 million accounts .
It was the largest data breach of all time and financial information from around 76 million households and 7 million small businesses were compromised.
In this case, hackers used third-party access to gain entry to JP Morgan’s network and they successfully stole the login credentials needed to access sensitive information.
Experian Hack
In 2013, credit reporting agency Experian was hacked and exposed around 15 million users’ data .
They had been using a third-party vendor who stored their images of identification documents on an insecure server, which became compromised by hackers.
In this case, hackers were able to steal names, addresses and social security numbers of Experian’s customers.
Wells Fargo Hack
In 2015, nearly 200,000 of Wells Fargo’s California clients were hacked into .
In this case, a former employee had already been fired for trying to access client information before being hired by a different company who was able to gain access to Wells Fargo’s network.
Anthem Hack
In 2015, health care company Anthem was hacked and exposed the data of more than 80 million customers .
Around 80.8 million customer records were exposed, including names, birthdates and social security numbers.
Some big data hacks from 2022
Facebook data hack
A disturbing data leak occurred when over 550 million Facebook users’ information was published on the internet. Of which Meta — Facebook’s new name — has said were gathered via scraping in 2019, the logs included names, dates of birth, genders, locations, and relationship statuses.
Volkswagen, Audi
The automakers announced a data breach affecting more than 3.3 million customers, with the majority of them based in the United States. A vendor tied to the incident was named as the reason for the leak, with it being suggested that between August 2019 and May 2021, they unintentionally made this information accessible in an unsecured manner.
T-Mobile
In August 2022 , T-Mobile was hit by another data breach. Customers’ names, addresses, social security numbers, driver’s licenses, IMEI and IMSI numbers, and ID information were said to have been stolen. It’s likely that around 50 million current and prospective clients were affected. A 21-year-old hacker took credit for the breach and claimed to have gained access to about 106 terabytes of data from T-Mobile.
Coinbase
After discovering a “third-party campaign to gain unlawful access to Coinbase customers’ accounts and move their funds off the platform,” Coinbase sent out a letter to around 6,000 people. Some user accounts were emptied without permission.
Panasonic
A data breach occurred from June 22 to November 3, with discovery on November 11, according to Panasonic. Information had also been obtained from a file server, the Japanese technology firm stated.