As cyber attacks soar, businesses both large and small continue to fall prey to data breaches. The year 2020 has already seen a range of breaches impacting businesses of all kinds in many different industries. Each time a data breach occurs, innocent people have their personal information compromised, and businesses suffer.
Here are some examples of the biggest data breaches to happen so far this year.
MGM Resorts
MGM Resorts suffered perhaps the most well-known and shocking data breach recorded this year. The problem began in February when it was believed that 10 million of the resort’s customers had had their data accessed during a data breach.
The personal information uncovered included names, dates of birth, addresses and phone numbers. But later in the year it was actually found to be far worse, with a total of around 150 million potentially being affected by the breach.
LiveJournal
LiveJournal might not be as popular today as it was 15 years ago, but that doesn’t make the breach they suffered any less significant.
Many people who haven’t been active on the platform for a long time might have had their data breached and exposed by what’s alleged to be a hack. The details of this hack became known in May this year, but the hack might be older than that. An estimated 33 million people had their sign in details and email addresses exposed as a consequence.
Wishbone
The data breach that hit Wishbone earlier this year was carried out by a hacker. They accessed the company’s data relating to its customers/users and then posted that content online for anyone who wanted to to see it.
Wishbone is an app for mostly young users, making the breach particularly notable. As a result of it, 40 million people had their email addresses, location, phone numbers and sign in details leaked.
Estee Lauder
Estee Lauder is a cosmetics company with customers around the world. But in February of this year, those customers found out that data at the company had been breached.
Luckily, the breach was found by researchers rather than malicious actors. Nevertheless, the vulnerability was discovered, and the number of records that were potentially exposed by the vulnerability topped 440 million and included email addresses, IP addresses, ports, and pathways.
Marriott
Marrott is a hotel chain that claimed in March this year that they had been hit by a data breach. However, there was a delay of two months between the breach itself and the announcement, a lack of transparency which angered customers. The breach meant that in excess of 5 million people had their personal information and loyalty account numbers exposed.
Don’t Fall Victim: Update Your Cybersecurity
As you can see, data breaches can affect even the largest of companies. But companies of all sizes are targeted, and attacks are on a steady upward trend, meaning that cybersecurity is more important for businesses than ever before.
Dan Cashman, president of TrinWare, an IT company in Arvada, says, “With the increasing number of cyber attacks occurring nationwide, we recommend that businesses make their cybersecurity a priority by putting a comprehensive security plan in place which includes constant monitoring, employee training, and other preventative actions.”
With a dedicated cybersecurity plan and, when necessary, professional IT help, companies can be much better prepared to stave off cyber attacks—and, hopefully, not end up on a list like this one in the future!
0
0