The year 2017 brought our world lots of new things: a new American President, new generations of mobile devices, and VR (virtual reality) became a reality. Some changes were positive while other events will be looked back upon as a dark mark on our way of life. The ever-growing and evolving data breaches are one such negative mark on our technology-dependent way of life. Here is a quick look back at some of the biggest data breaches in 2017.
- In September 2017, Equifax, one of the three largest credit agencies in the U.S., suffered a breach that may have affected 143 million consumers. It is being called one of the worst breaches ever due to the sensitivity of the data stolen, including social security numbers and driver’s license numbers.
- In March 2017, the IRS FAFSA was breached. The IRS revealed that up to 100,000 taxpayers may have had their personal information stolen in a scheme involving the IRS Data Retrieval Tool, which is used to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The IRS said it shut down the Data Retrieval Tool because identity thieves that had obtained some personal information outside of the tax system were possibly using the tool to steal additional data.
- At the end of 2016, Yahoo reported that approximately 1 million user accounts were compromised by the 2013 breach. In October 2017, the company has reported that the number is more like 1 billion rather than million users impacted. Even after thorough investigations, it is still unknown who was behind the 2013 Yahoo breach.
- In June 2017 a reported 14 million Verizon subscribers may have been affected by a data breach. This may have included anyone who contacted Verizon customer service in the past six months. These records were held on a server that was controlled by Israel-based Nice Systems.
- In May 2017, the education platform, Edmodo, which claims to have over 78 million members, was breached. The hacker, known as nclay, was found selling 77 million Edmodo accounts on the Dark Web for $1,000 each.
2018 promises to be just as active with hackers learning new methods. Are you and your company prepared? Call M&H Consulting at 1-(866)-964-8324 or visit our website at http://www.mhconsults.com
Categorised in: data breach, data management, Security