5 Major Data Breaches and What You Can do to Protect Your Data

data breach warning label

Have you been hacked? A recent report revealed that one in four consumers has been hacked, and they probably don’t know it.

1. YAHOO – 1 BILLION ACCOUNTS BREACHED

Yahoo just recently reported two separate security events. The first was the data breach that occurred in 2013 and the second was a more recent incident involving forged cookies that could allow scammers to access users’ accounts without a password. The 2013 breach is believed to have impacted over 1 billion Yahoo customers, which is pretty much everyone who uses Yahoo Mail. 

2. VOTER DATABASES – 399 MILLION RECORDS COMPROMISED

As if the presidential election wasn’t already considered a circus. This past June, 154 million voters had sensitive information stolen in a massive breach. 

Earlier this year, a database with around 191 million voter records was hacked and released online. This list included personal details for millions of voters, including their names, addresses, political affiliation, phone numbers and voting history.

Another breach was also reported where the records of 54 million voters were compromised. Fortunately, the source of these leaks was eventually identified, and the breaches themselves were contained.

3. GOOGLE, YAHOO, MICROSOFT – 273 MILLION PASSWORDS STOLEN

Back in May, a hacker who calls himself “The Collector” claimed to be behind one of the largest security and email breaches in recent history. This breach affected almost every single person with an email account, whether you have Gmail, Microsoft Outlook (or Hotmail), Yahoo Mail or many others.

Although only 273 million email accounts were posted for sale online, cybersecurity experts estimate that The Collector has up to 1.7 billion email account passwords in his or her possession.

4. LINKEDIN – 117 MILLION ACCOUNTS LEAKED

LinkedIn was attacked before, but just this year it was revealed that there was the massive data breach in 2012, putting 117 million people at risk. That was just the beginning.

LinkedIn filed a lawsuit in an attempt to find out who, or what, created the botnet that has been constantly attacking the site, stealing an “undisclosed amount of data.” 

5. DAILYMOTION – 85 MILLION ACCOUNTS BREACHED

The popular video sharing website, Dailymotion, has confirmed that details from 87.6 million accounts have been stolen. The hijacked information includes email addresses, usernames and over 18 million passwords.

PROTECT YOUR DATA WITH THESE STEPS:

  • Change your password – Whenever you hear news of a data breach, it’s a good idea to change your account passwords.
  • Beware of phishing scams – Scammers will try and piggyback on huge breaches like this. They will create phishing emails, pretending to be the affected company, hoping to get victims to click on malicious links that could lead to more problems.
  • Manage passwords – Many people use the same username and password on multiple sites. If you’re using the same credentials on multiple sites, change them to make them unique. If you have too many accounts to remember, you could always use a password manager.
  • Check email security settings – Make sure the email account associated with the hacked site has updated security settings.
  • Have strong security software – Protecting your gadgets with strong security software is important; it’s the best defense against digital threats.

No matter how small your business is, taking cybersecurity seriously is essential to protecting what you’ve worked so hard to build.

[via: www.komando.com]

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