Information Security and Mitigations
5 of the biggest data breaches ever
PUBLISHED TUE, JUL 30 201910:22 AM EDTUPDATED TUE, JUL 30 201910:22 AM EDT
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KEY POINTS
· The personal information of some 100 million Americans and 6 million Canadians who are Capital One credit card holders or applicants has been hacked it was revealed Monday.
· This latest breach does not even rank in the top 10 of the biggest such hackings, according to number of people affected.
weerapatkiatdumrong | iStock | Getty Images
Monday’s news that a hacker had accessed the personal information of millions of Capital One credit card customers and card applicants probably didn’t shock all that many people.
Data breaches sadly are becoming a common occurrence.
Even with 100 million Americans and 6 million Canadians possibly affected, this latest event doesn’t even rank among the top 10 such breaches (measured by number of customer records affected.)
Here’s a look at five of the largest data breaches on record to date:
1. Yahoo
SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images
Number of records affected: 3 billion ; 500 million
Years: 2013; 2014
Reason: Hacking
2. First American Financial Corp.
firstam.com
Number of records affected: 885 million
Year: 2019
Reason: Poor security
3. Facebook
bombuscreative | iStock Unreleased | Getty Images
Number of records affected: 540 million
Year: 2019
Reason: Poor security
4. Marriott International
Getty Images
Number of records affected: 500 million
Year: 2018
Reason: Hacking
5. Friend Finder Networks
ffn.com
Number of records affected: 412.2 million
Year: 2016
Reason: Poor security/hacking