It seems that privacy is becoming a rare commodity in the modern world. Everyone is concerned that their most personal and private data is being viewed or leaked to the random and anonymous people of the Internet. This is due to the ever worsening lack of responsibility or malevolent intentions of companies with access to your vital data. In particular, many businesses and organized are being targeted, which necessitate strengthening your IT services and solutions against these network attacks.
Unfortunately, data breaches occur more frequently than most people would feel comfortable acknowledging. To prove this, we will be taking a look at seven recent data breaches with significant impact:
1. Capital One Data Breach – August 2019
On August 4, 2019, the financial company known as Capital One announced that a majority of their customer data had been breached. This included information such as social security numbers, bank account numbers, addresses, credit scores, limits, and even account balances had been compromised.
So many people have been affected from these recent data breaches that some are still waiting on news of their compromised data. Those affected can expect a letter in the mail from the company eventually, but it seems like that is just far too long a wait for such an important bundle of bad news.
2. Blur Data Breach – January 2019
The first major data breach of 2019 came only two days into the year. On January 2, 2019, Blur announced that 2.4 million users had been impacted by a data breach found on December 13 of 2018. This was noticed when a security researcher contacted the company with information about a sever which exposed a file containing information relevant to many Blur users.
Naturally, the company followed up with an internal audit that confirmed the worst. Information including email addresses, first and last names, IP addresses, and even password hints had been compromised. Blur took full responsibility for these recent data breaches, and promptly informed their users on what to do next.
3. Fortnite Data Breach – January 2019
It’s no secret that the online video game, Fortnite, had a big year in 2018. Since its release, it has amassed over 200 million users who all log in with their eyes on a victory. However, January of 2019 came with disturbing news for players of the hit game. A webpage created in 2004 by developer, Epic Games, allowed hackers to send phishing links to users that appeared to be sent directly from the developer.
Upon opening these links, the users would have their accounts compromised by the hackers. This allowed the digital intruders to make purchases with virtual currency found within the game, and even listen to microphone chatter among the players. This was extremely unnerving for many users, as Fortnite is extremely popular among players in the child demographic.
Epic Games took swift action to notify those affected and addressed the issues causing vulnerabilities. They also went on to attempt to educate users about account safety.
4. Facebook Data Breach – March 2019
One of the biggest stories of 2019 was centered around Facebook’s mishandling of user information. In March, it was announced that hundreds of millions of user passwords were accessible to around 20,000 Facebook employees. Considering the amount of ways you can connect a Facebook account to virtually… Anything, this news came as a shocking betrayal to many faithful social media users.
It was also revealed that these accounts were in peril since 2012, leading many to assume that this breach of privacy was either malicious, or simply an egregious example of incompetence. These recent data breaches has led to the company facing tons of legal trouble throughout the year, as well as many more reports of leaks and vulnerabilities within the social media giant.
5. AMC Networks Data Breach – May 2019
In May of 2019, a security researcher noticed that subscribers to two premium streaming platforms belong to AMC Networks had their records exposed publicly. The streaming platforms in question were Sundance Now and Shudder. The information exposed to the general public included names, email addresses, partial credit card information, IP addresses, and location information, among other things.
AMC Networks did fix the issue in their database, but the security researcher, Bob Diachenko of Security Discovery, expressed concern with how difficult it was to alert the company of the issue.
6. AMCA Data Breach – March 2019
Financial and medical information are two topics that everyone wants to remain private. Unfortunately for 7.7 million consumers of medical testing company, LabCorp, that information was exposed via a breach.
A third-party billing collections firm, the American Medical Collection Agency, notified the company around June 4th, 2019 of the breach. This is doubly concerning due to the fact that another firm, Quest Diagnostics was recently exposed, as well. The AMCA informed LabCorp that the breach took place between August 1st, 2018 until March 30th, 2019.
That’s quite a long time for millions of people’s personal data to be in jeopardy. It has been stated that an estimated 24.4 million patients of LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics have been affected by the AMCA data breach.
7. Los Angeles Department of Health Services Data Breach – July 2019
It’s one thing for a company to be breached, leading to a leak of consumer information. However, a government organization falling victim to an information crisis is something that is far more concerning. On July 10th, 2019, the Los Angeles County Department of Health alerted the public to a phishing attack on a contractor of the department. Said attack exposed the personal information of approximately 14,600 patients.
The contractor, Nemadji Research Corporation, states that it has reviewed it’s security policies and taken the necessary actions to secure the systems used. However, information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and medical information had already been compromised long before that.
