Biggest CS Incidents of 2021
A hacker attack happens every 39 seconds in the United States. Cybersecurity incidents overall are increasing at a dramatic rate. During just the first six months of 2021, there were over 1,700 publicly reported breaches that exposed 18.8 billion records.
In this blog, we are reviewing the most recent and largest breaches in the past year.
- Pixlr: Pixlr’s database containing 1.9 million user records was leaked by a hacker in January of this year. The database was stolen at the same time as the attack on 123RF which exposed over 83 million user records. The leaked information included email addresses, usernames, passwords, and other sensitive information.
- Microsoft Exchange: In March of this year, online criminals targeted serious flaws in Microsoft Exchange Server email software where they were able to access the email accounts of at least 30,000 organizations across the United States.
- Facebook: The personal information of 533 million Facebook users from over 100 countries was posted online for free and in a low-level hacking forum. It was concluded that the info was scrapped in a vulnerability that Facebook had patched in 2019, but the leaked information included users phone numbers, full names, location, email addresses, and other personal identification information.
- LinkedIn: In April of this year 500 million LinkedIn user profiles were discovered on the dark web where hackers were selling for only $2 a record.
- ParkMobile: ParkMobile discovered a third-party software vulnerability in its parking payment app that exposed over 21 million customer records. The stolen information included email addresses, phone numbers, license plate numbers, passwords, and mailing addresses.
The causes of some of the worst breaches of this year have shifted from being majorly human error-based to ransomware, third-party vulnerabilities, and undetected security gaps. A breach can affect an organization in any industry and of any size. It is vital that protection is top priority. Increase budgets, address skills gaps, and implement the right processes and protocols in every facet of your organization.
