What are some of the most infamous data breaches? As you were busy keeping up with what was going on in the football pitch something else was happening in the sidelines.
If you have ever watched any action movie that involves data breaching, it is always a big deal. So does data breaching happen in real life? The answer is yes and the country with the highest number of data breaches is the US. A lot of people are being sensitized about data breaching, which is becoming all too familiar.
What is a data breach?
A data breach is when a cybercriminal successfully hacks a data source and gets hold of personal and sensitive information without authorization. It can either be done physically, using a computer to bypass network security. Different types of data can be stolen ranging from intellectual property, trade secrets and personal health information.
For instance, Yahoo has had the most significant data breach in the 21st century, which occurred in 2013. More than three billion accounts were hacked. It isn't just identity theft that we are talking about - data breaches can mean important company data and information lost too.
What are some of the most infamous data breaches?
1. German Politicians 2019
The beginning of this year was not a good one for most German politicians. This was after sensitive information that belonged to more than hundreds of German politicians was released online. The hackers targeted politicians from regional and EU. However, it was not only politicians who were targeted but also musicians, satirists, and journalists.
The leaked data that was released online included personal phone numbers, email addresses, bank-account information, holiday photos copies of the IDs, family conversations and world correspondence. Chancellor Angela Merkel was one of the victims. Her email addresses were released.
2. Quora 2018
Last year, more 100 million users of Quora would have had their data hacked. It was as a result of unauthorized access that was due to infiltration by a third party.
If you are a user of Quora your user-account information that has your username, password, email address and data from linked social media accounts could have been breached. Although the Q&A forum addressed the issue, they did not say which steps they were taking to handle the problem.
3. FIFA 2018
As you were busy keeping up with what was going on in the football pitch something else was happening in the sidelines. It was reported that more than 3.4 terabytes of information was leaked to the German magazine Der Spiegel. The data contained more than 70 million documents from FIFA and allegations of corruption in the organization.
Once the data was leaked a lot of rumors came about especially with the controversial league the "Super League". This was the second leak after earlier in March another breach was made that month. Later, it was revealed that most of the football players had failed in the drug tests.
4. Facebook 2018
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