The number and the severity of cyber-attacks are increasing day-by-day, and the need to implement robust security solutions is greater than ever before. Cybercriminals have become more advanced and skilled in infiltrating through traditional security systems. These hackers hardly ever discriminate between small and large companies, and every company is at the risk of a cyber-attack. In truth, small and medium-sized companies share a greater risk as they often fail to understand the importance of cybersecurity.
The businesses of today can greatly learn from the cybersecurity breaches of the past to understand what to do and what to avoid. In the following list of biggest cybersecurity breaches, there exist the names of many renowned industry giants whose careless mistakes brought them unprecedented financial loss and reputation damage. Quite often, the lack of faith in online cybersecurity programs brings great loss to such businesses as their employees lack the skills needed to counteract the cyber-attacks.
However, before we move on to the list of the biggest cybersecurity breaches of the past. Let’s understand why cybersecurity breaches are an issue?
Why Cybersecurity Beaches Are An Issue?
Data capital has become a business’s most valuable asset and that’s why businesses strive to protect the data at all costs. There’s a good reason why it is essential to do everything you can to protect your data. A data security breach hits the business simultaneously from multiple ends. A data breach can cause massive revenue loss, loss of intellectual property, and also reputation damage. It is also not easy to climb back up again to a solid position after a major cybersecurity breach. That’s why protection and prevention hold the utmost importance in the world of cybersecurity.
Top 4 Cybersecurity Breaches of the Recent Past
There are multiple metrics used to define the severity of a cybersecurity breach. The number of affected users is perhaps the most common cybersecurity breach severity indicator. Additionally, the total financial loss and the nature of data & websites also help understand the true severity of a cybersecurity breach. In truth, the majority of these cybersecurity breaches could have been avoided by training employees with the help of online cybersecurity programs. Here are the four biggest cybersecurity breaches of the recent past mainly based on the total number of affected users and the severity of the information.
- Yahoo – Over 3 Billion Users
Yahoo’s data security was severely breached in the year 2013 resulting in the loss of personal data of over 3 billion users. This data included birth dates, real names, phone numbers, and email addresses of the Yahoo users. In this event, cybercriminals mainly targeted the majority of hashed passwords. In addition to major reputation damage, this security breach brought massive financial losses to the company. The biggest consequence of this cybersecurity breach from the company’s end was the devaluation which shredded a total of $350 million from its original market value.
- Equifax – 148 Million Consumers
Equifax stands in second place due to the nature of the company and the confidentiality of the information. Being one of the largest credit bureaus in the United States, Equifax suffered a massive cybersecurity breach resulting in the exploitation of confidential data in the summer of 2017. The private confidential information of over 148 million consumers was penetrated in this data security breach.
This breach was triggered by a simple web application vulnerability and this signifies the importance of the online cybersecurity programs. The breached data included driver license numbers, social security numbers, birth dates, and consumer addresses. Besides this, credit card details of over 209K consumers were also stolen in this cybersecurity incident.
- First American Financial Corp – 885 Million Consumers
First American Financial Corporation suffered a massive cybersecurity data breach in July 2019. This data security breach is included among the biggest breaches of all-time as it exposed the confidential data of over 885 million consumers. These records included account numbers, bank statements, tax records, driver license images, and social security numbers.
The reason it is below Equifax is that it wasn’t triggered by a threat or vulnerability but was rather an information leak. Anyone across the globe having a web browser could have accessed these confidential records. This is another event that advocates the need to aware and educates the employees about cybersecurity through online cybersecurity programs and bootcamps.
- Friend Finder Network – 412 Million Accounts
Friend Finder Network is considered one of the most severe cybersecurity breaches of the recent past due to the high number of affected users and the nature of the website. In this event, personal data dating back to over 20+ years was stolen and exploited because of a weak cybersecurity system. This included data of over 412 million accounts consisting of email addresses, passwords, and usernames.