Data breaches are much more prevalent these days than one may realize. A data breach is any sort of incident where confidential information gets accessed by someone unauthorized. The biggest motive behind a data breach is financial gains. Hackers can utilize the stolen data to commit fraud, hold it for ransom or sell it off on the dark web. In this article, we have compiled together 5 terrifying data breach statistics.  

1.  The Largest Insider Attack

An insider attack is when an organization’s employee with access to the company’s data steals it for their malicious ends. Lasting from 1976 to 2006, the largest insider attack in history involved one Boeing employee named Greg Chung stealing over $2,000,000,000 worth of the company’s data and passed it to the Chinese government.

(Source: NBC)

2. The Biggest Data Breach in History

In what many say is the biggest data breach ever recorded, the IT company Yahoo had all 3 billion of its user accounts hacked. The amount of sensitive information that could have been potentially stolen, such as old healthcare or financial statements, adds to the noteworthiness of the attack.

(Source: Reuters)

3. One of the Big Three U.S Credit Reporting Agencies Getting Compromised

This one example should make us all the more worried about just how vulnerable our personal information really is on the internet. In 2017, one of the biggest U.S credit reporting agencies, Equifax, was subject to a cyber attack in which hackers compromised nearly 145 million accounts. Thus, they were able to gain access to such sensitive information as social security numbers, names, date of birth, and even driver’s license numbers.  

(Source: CBS News)

4. Facebook User Records Publicly Exposed

Last year, over 540 million Facebook users had their records (including account details, activity, and contacts) publicly exposed. The fault lay largely with Facebook, which has a policy of sharing its users’ data with third-party businesses, through which it got leaked on the internet.   

(Source: CBS News)

5. Cyber Crime Costed Over $2 Trillion Last Year

Cyber Crime today remains one of the biggest threats facing today’s business and the public at large. According to data, it is estimated that last year, the total global cost of cyber-crimes exceeds over $2 Trillion – that is more than three times the entire GDP of London!

(Source: Juniper)

Don’t Have Your Data Compromised

Most of us are already aware of how hackers use online vulnerabilities to commit a data breach. However, a lot of the risk also comes from exposed old documentation and hardware storage – the information which hackers can use to get access to your servers.

New Jersey Shredding is a professional data destruction company headquartered in Jersey City. If you are interested in a proper yet affordable solution to your business’s records shredding needs, feel free to visit our website. For a free quote, don’t hesitate to contact us by calling on our number – (201) 371 5900.