The 8 Biggest Data Breaches of 2018
The year 2018 is one of several years that were marked significant data breaches. Unauthorized access and illegal hacking into the database of organizations, companies, and businesses to steal confidential personal, financial, and contact information of subscribers, customers, and users took place and most of which shook the cyberspace and users globally.
Some of the data breaches in 2018 had taken place earlier but were discovered in 2018 while the bulk of the violations happened and was discovered and disclosed in the year. Here are the 8 biggest data breaches in 2018.
It was reported in June that detailed information on not fewer than 340 million American adults and businesses comprising contact addresses, phone numbers, and members’ personal preferences got exposed.
The Quora’s system was hacked, and the information of about 100 million users was accessed and retrieved by a malicious third party in November.
Although GooglePlus had been a victim of series of data breaches in 2015 through March 2018, it yet experienced another big data breaches on November 7 as a result of a software glitch. Information of about 52.5 million users was compromised, which made announced to shut down the platform in April 2019.
In late May 2018, a hacker identified as “IsHaKdZ” hacked into the company’s system and accessed the database tagged ‘backstage’ that contained personal information of clients, promoters, venues, and festivals that use the company’s services. Names, phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses of about 27 million clients were retrieved.
Early in the year, January 2018, information of about 14 million customers and drivers relating to Careem, a transportation network company was successfully retrieved by hackers.
In March, the personal data of 9.4 million passengers was accessed illegally by a malicious third party. The data retrieved includes 27 credit card numbers without verification value, 403 expired credit card numbers, 245,000 Hong Kong ID card numbers, and 860,000 passport numbers.
In August, an international group of hackers hacked into the T-Mobile servers using an API and retrieved personal information and passwords of not fewer than 2 million users.
Between August 21 and September 5, a hacker illegally accessed the airline’s database and it affected its website and app. Data of about 380,000 users were stolen including credit card details used for making bookings.
