World’s Biggest Data Breaches
Last week we discussed how a data breach could affect your business. This week we will be taking a look at some of the biggest data breaches to occur in the world.
Here are just three examples of the biggest data breaches to occur in the world so far:
Heartland Payment Systems
- 2008-2009: 130 million records compromised
- Malware on Heartland’s network recorded card details as it arrived from retailers
- Albert Gonzalez who was behind the hack was sentenced to 20 years in prison which was the longest sentence ever handed down for computer crime in a U.S. court
Target Stores
- 2013: 110 million records compromised
- In December 2013 US retail giant Target’s payment card readers were hacked and around 40 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen
- In January 2014, Target announced that the contact information of 70 million customers had also been compromised
Sony Online Entertainment Services
- 2011: 102 million records compromised
- Attackers exposed login credentials, names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of users.
- The PlayStation Network remained offline for three weeks after the breach and costs were estimated at around $171 million
Recent research shows that fresh credit card data is worth around £20 on average on the black market, making a large breach very profitable for someone who is seeking to sell this sort of information on.
Take a look at this interesting visualisation of the world’s biggest data breaches
To completely secure your customers’ details when they are making payment, you can check out our solutions here, or email us on [email protected]
