“Data breaches” was the main tech headline for 2024, costing companies millions. This news should alarm all businesses, especially SMBs, of the serious consequences of poor cyber security management.
From healthcare giants to tech conglomerates, here are the five biggest data breaches of 2024.
1. National Public Data
2.7 billion records were stolen from a data-brokering site, including social security numbers and home addresses. Due to the scale of this breach, it is recommended to monitor your financial and online accounts regularly. Find out if you were exposed here.
2. Ticketmaster
A data breach at this popular online ticketing platform exposed the personal and financial information of 560 million customers. Unauthorised transactions were made on the victims’ accounts, some reporting cases of identity theft. Besides the loss of trust amongst users, this breach has added more legal tension for the parent company, Live Nation, which is currently facing a lawsuit from the US Department of Justice for anti-competitive practices.
3. Change Healthcare
This ransomware attack has been recorded as the largest breach in the healthcare industry. In April, the personal information of 145 million people was exposed, including names, social security numbers, and medical records. This massive cyber incident urged health care providers and insurance companies to strengthen their cyber security practices to prevent a similar attack from happening in the future.
4. AT&T
Following the security breach in 2023, which impacted 9 million users, AT&T was yet again a victim of a data breach in March of this year. The personal data of 73 million current and former customers was stolen, including social security numbers, account details, and passcodes. Even though the company is containing the malware while providing service to customers, this significant breach might result in multiple class action lawsuits.
5. Dell
A hacker known as Menelik used a brute-force attack to infiltrate Dell through one of their resellers. This breach exposed 49 million records containing customer names, e-mails, payment information, and account details. In response to this breach, the company issued a public apology, and has committed to enhancing its security measures.
What Should I Do If I Was Hacked?
Read this if you think your data was exposed. The first thing to do is to freeze your credit and check your bank account. Moreover, use websites like haveIbeenpwnd.com to check if your email was compromised.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
Even if you don’t have millions of customer records, your company is still at risk, more so if you don’t have proper cyber security measures in place.
One breach could cost your business thousands of dollars in downtime, lost data, and damaged reputation.
Don’t let it get to this – Protect Your Business with a FREE Security Risk Assessment
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