In 2020, we already saw a massive amount of data breaches on a large scale basis that has affected thousands of internet users. A data breach is a security incident in which protected or confidential data is copied, transmitted, viewed, stolen, or used by an individual unauthorized to do so.
Data breaches expose your passwords, email addresses, credit information, home addresses phone numbers, and even steal your identity. Many breaches occur due to overexposed and unstructured data files and documents.
Data breaches are when people hack into security systems and steal people’s information. They can hurt both business and a person by hacking into a website’s security system and stealing names, passwords, emails, financial information, social security numbers, etc. They can then take this information and use it against you, stealing any hard-earned money from either a business or a person.
Data breaches occur on the dark web, which is different from the surface web we are used to seeing. The dark web is when there is a collection of content that is not organized by search engine websites. It isn’t always used for bad intentions, but it is still a place that hackers love to go to steal people’s vital information.
Hackers can get on major websites like Amazon, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, etc. to steal your information. Even if you aren’t entering any suspicious websites, they are still able to hack your data from these major websites.
According to the IC3’s 2020 Annual Report, California has had the most data breach victims, with 5,377 victims residing in the state. In second place, we have Florida who has had 3,104 people who have had their data stolen, and in third place, Texas has 2,842 people who were victims of data breaches.
Find Your State Down Below:
The Top 10 States With the Most Victims:
The States/Territories With the Least Amount of Victims:
There has been a total of 35,732 reported data breach cases in the United States. In addition to this data, there are probably a lot more unknown cases in the United States. People have their data stolen from the dark web daily without even knowing it. This is why it is super important to keep yourself updated in checking your email to make sure no one is stealing your information.
There has been a total of 35,732 reported data breach cases in the United States alone in 2019. #databreach Click To Tweet
In 2019, MGM Resorts was reportedly hacked, leaving 10.6 million guests with compromised information. Within a week of the data breach, it was reported that 142 million hotel guests were likely impacted since a hacker posted an ad on the dark web attempting to sell details of 142,479,937 MGM hotel guests for a price just over $2,900.
On July 10, 2018, Macy’s had to inform their customers that a third party has hacked their database and had access to their accounts from April 26 to Jue 12, 2018. The hacks got access to names, phone numbers, email addresses, birth dates, and credit card numbers.
In October of 2019, social media profiles from different platforms ended up becoming public on an unsecured server. This data breach reached more than 1.2 billion unique people, making it one of the most significant data breaches in history. This leaked information contained email addresses, names, phone numbers, and LinkedIn and Facebook Profile information.
On July 4, 2018, Timehop experienced a data breach that exposed the names and emails of all its users, roughly 21 million people. 4.7 million of those users had their phone numbers stolen. Timehop has since put multi-factor authentication in place to prevent such a breach from happening again.
The Exactis breach affected approximately 340 million records from the marketing and aggregation firm. Exactis left its database exposed on a publicly accessible server, giving hackers access to a considerable amount of consumer information such as home address, phone numbers, and emails.
In 2018, Ticketfly announced a data breach that affected more than 26 million customers. They were forced to temporarily shut down its website after customer names, home addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers were stolen.
In July of 2019, Rotem and Locar found that there was an open database where more than 2 billion records were exposed from people who used Orvibo Smart Home Products. This affected individuals, businesses, and even hotels in multiple countries, including the United States, Mexico, China, Japan, Thailand, The United Kingdom, France, Australia, and Brazil.
This data breach was open for two weeks before Orvibo found out about it via Twitter and email. The types of data that was made public included email addresses, passwords, reset codes, precise geolocation, IP address, username, family names, etc.
In early June, 92 million email addresses and passwords from MyHeritage were exposed in a data breach. The genealogy and DNA testing company began encouraging all users to change their passwords and to sign up for two-factor authentication as soon as it becomes available.
TrueDialog is an American communications company based in Austin, TX. This company helps with SMS solutions for large and small companies and works with over 990 cellphone companies with 5 billion subscribers.
In 2019, 1 billion pieces of sensitive data were leaked in forms of SMS messages that were sent through this company. This included full names of recipients, the content of messages, email addresses, phone numbers, dates, and times messages were sent, etc.
In March 2018, Under Armor announced that 150 million users of its app, MyFitnessPal, had their information exposed. The stolen data included usernames, email addresses, and passwords.
First American Financial Corporation is the largest real estate title insurance company in the United States. In July of 2019, data leaked from its system, which exposed the records of 885 million individuals.
This included millions of documents that recorded mortgage deals from way back in 2003. This data breach leaked bank account information, mortgage and tax records, social security numbers, wire transaction receipts, and driver license pictures.
The owner of retail stores, Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor announced a data breach in April that revealed the theft of more than 5 million users’ credit and debit card information. The series of attacks began in May 2017, and since then, the hackers have been selling this information on the dark web. The attack was discovered by Gemini Advisory, a cybersecurity firm that called the breach one of the biggest and most damaging ever to hit retail companies.
In March 2019, the U. S. Justice Department discovered universities had been targeted by a government based Iranian hacking scheme. Nearly 150 universities in the United States had 31 terabytes of intellectual property stolen via a phishing scam aimed at professors at the universities.
The attack is estimated to have caused over 3.4 billion worth of damages. The hackers attacked five U.S. government agencies and 36 private emails.
Keep only what you need. Inventory type and quantity of information in your files and on your work computers. Here are more ways to prevent a business data breach:
As you can see from the incidents listed above, this is a severe matter affecting even the largest of companies with elaborate security in place. Data breaches will only increase as hackers become more and more sophisticated.
When you are cleaning out your personal computers, keep only what you need and be careful not to store too much personal information on them. Here are some ways on how to prevent a personal data breach:
Change your password frequently to keep the hackers guessing. #databreach Click To Tweet
Make a habit of checking your bank accounts and credit reports. Frequently monitor your personal information and statements. Keep your eyes open and be alert.
No matter what website you make an account on, you are still at risk of becoming a victim to data breaches. If you have an account with any website, whether it is an email or social media account, then someone could have your usernames, passwords, financial information, and other personal data. It is always good to stay protected by practicing multi-factor authorization, and making sure your firewall software is up to date. Even big businesses have been victims of data breaches, meaning you could be too.
If you suspect you are a victim of a data breach, use Social Catfish’s reverse search, specifically our reverse email lookup tool to assist you in resolving your problem:
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