In this new era when everyone is getting digital, you also must have heard the term ‘data breach’ at some point in time. It is obvious that it leaves you wondering what it is and what are the reasons. So here is the answer for you. A data breach is an incident when some confidential information is released into an untrusted environment. This release could also be intentional or unintentional. There are various notable data breaches that took place in recent times. Here we are going to discuss 10 recent data breaches.
Recent Data Breaches | Get Your Safety Intact
Adobe:
This data breach took place in October 2013 and it affected approximately 153 million user records. Initially, Adobe stated that a group of hackers compromised the credit card details of their 3 million customers. Later they reported that the number was 38 million active users. And this does not end there. Another report came stating that the total number was more than 150 million usernames, passwords, and credit card details of Adobe customers. Can you imagine losing the IDs and passwords of so many users to an untrusted environment? It is definitely a huge thing that happened.
In August 2015, Adobe paid $1.1 million as legal fees and also a huge amount to the users. Adobe did not disclose this amount. They did this to settle the claims of the Customer Records Act violation. And also there were claims of unfair business practices.
Adult Friend Finder:
In October 2016, another sensitive data breach was there. And it affected nearly 412.2 million accounts. This was a whole different type of breach because of the services the website offered. It was with the FriendFinder Network. This group included various casual hookups and adult content websites. The data stolen from these websites spanned 20 years on six databases. And the information included names, email IDs, and passwords.
These websites used a weak SHA-1 hashing algorithm to protect their customers’ information. This breach started in mid-October 2016 and within one month, the hackers compromised 99% of the accounts.
Canva:
Canva is a popular graphic designing tool website. On this website, a data breach was there in May 2019. And the hackers were also able to get a good amount of information of nearly 137 million users. This information included email addresses, usernames, names, their cities, passwords etc. Although Canva came up with a statement that the hackers were only able to view these details but not actually steal the files containing payment information.
The attacker claimed to have gained OAuth login tokens for users who signed in via Google. Canva confirmed this incident and then informed their users about it. They also prompted the users to change passwords and reset OAuth tokens.
eBay:
eBay suffered an attack in May 2014. And this data breach exposed all the information of 145 million users. This information included names, addresses, dates of birth, and also encrypted passwords. The company also reported that the hackers used the credentials of three corporate employees. And this allowed them to access the network. Those hackers had complete access to the network for 229 days.
eBay also asked its customers to change their passwords. They also stated that the payment-related information of the customers was in different files. And the hackers were not able to get access to them.
Dubsmash:
Dubsmash is a popular video-sharing social media platform. It also suffered a data attack in December 2018. The hackers were able to steal details of nearly 162 million accounts. This information included email IDs, usernames, passwords and other data such as DOBs. Later this information was available for sale on the Dream Market dark web market. The company acknowledged this attack and prompted the users to change their passwords. However, Dubsmash was not able to confirm the exact number of affected accounts.
Heartland Payment Systems:
This data breach took place in March 2008. When this attack happened, the company was processing 100 million payment card transactions per month for 175,000 merchants. This breach came to the notice of Heartland when Visa and MasterCard reported suspicious transactions from accounts. The hackers performed a SQL injection attack to get access.
Later, Heartland was deemed out of compliance with the Data Security Standard (DSS) of the Payment Card Industry (PCI). The company also had to pay approximately $145 million in compensation. The hackers were also caught by the authorities. Albert Gonzalez and two unnamed Russian were behind this breach. The mastermind of this plan was Gonzalez. He was sentenced in March 2010 to 20 years in federal prison.
LinkedIn:
LinkedIn is a popular social platform where different business professionals can connect with each other. It suffered a major data attack in 2012.
In 2012, 6.5 million passwords were stolen by a group of hackers. All these passwords were posted onto a Russian hacker forum. In 2016, the attackers were selling the email IDs and passwords of LinkedIn users. They offered information of about 165 million accounts for just 5 bitcoins. LinkedIn acknowledged the breach and had reset the passwords of all the affected accounts.
Marriott International:
In November 2018, Marriott International reported that the details of their 500 million customers was stolen by a group of attackers. This data breach was initially started in 2014. The hackers got access to systems supporting Starwood hotel brands first. They remained in the system undiscovered. And Marriott acquired Starwood in 2016. They were first discovered in September 2018.
Those hackers were able to take details like contact information, passport number, Starwood Preferred Guest numbers, travel information, and other information. Although it is believed that they also got access to the credit card details of more than 100 million customers, Marriott did not give any confirmation about this.
MySpace:
This data breach took place in 2013 and it had an impact on nearly 360 million user accounts. There was a time when MySpace was the social media powerhouse. But this platform made it to headlines once again because of this data breach. A group of hackers leaked this information on LeakedSource. Later the details were put up for sale on the dark web market.
Yahoo:
In September 2016 Yahoo reported that it suffered a major data attack in 2014. The attackers got access to the details of 500 million users. This information included real names, email IDs, DOBs etc. And in December 2016, Yahoo reported another breach that took place in 2013. A different group of hackers was behind this attack. They compromised details of around 1 billion user accounts.
Wrapping Up!
Here we have listed out all the recent data breaches. All of them were huge and impacted a lot of users.
By now a lot of things became clear in your mind about this. But no matter what you might also have a few doubts flooding your mind. To get appropriate answers for all of your queries, you should definitely take some expert assistance. For your convenience, we have a large team of WordPress experts. They will be more than happy to help you with your queries. We are available on 1-866-332-O276.
