Yahoo
Image Source: FoodService Director
Yahoo have suffered from more than one data breach in the last decade or so, both of which affected more than 3 billion different people's accounts. The hackers managed to find out all the responses to people's security questions and answers leaving many of them at risk of having their private information stolen! This gained a lot of news coverage as its one of the biggest breaches ever, and most users were forced to change their passwords and re-encrypt there security questions. Were you one of those affected?
First American Financial Corporation
Image Source: The Wall Street Journal
During the summer of 2019, the First American Financial Corporation found themselves at fault for the breach of nearly 1 billion of their users' data! Fortunately for the users, the data was found by someone who had no intention of using it for their own criminal gain, but instead to show how poor the security that the company used was! Essentially all people had to do was change the numbers in their personal URL up or down and they'd be able to view other people's documents like driver's licences and account statements.
LinkedIn
Image Source: Business Insider
LinkedIn are the second of the US companies to have had their data breached on more than once occasion, once in 2012 and again in 2021! The 2021 leak was by far the more dangerous as more than 90% of all LinkedIn users had their data posted on the dark web. This data essentially showed whole aspects of peoples accounts including their names, email addresses, URL's and social media accounts. Although the 2012 leak wasn't so bad, more than 100 million users had their passwords found and hacked!
Facebook (2019)
Image Source: Daily Star (8 and 36)
Yep, yet another company (and this time one of the biggest worldwide) to have had our data breached from! Facebook is an obvious site to be targeted due to the sheer number of people that access the site. The 2019 leak was much worse affecting more than 500 million users had their phone numbers leaked on to the dark web. 2018's leak revolved around the US governmental election as people's lifestyles were converted in to 'data' in order for media channels!
Marriott (50 too!)
Image Source: Reddit
Hotel companies don't initially strike you as something people might want to hack in to, but millions of people pay for a nights stay somewhere round the world every single night, so they must hold a lot of data, right? In 2018, Marriott officials found that hackers had access to the system for more than four years and therefore had access to personal info like peoples names and passport numbers, as well as (potentially) the financial accounts based on the card they paid with for their stay. The US government claimed this was a data attack by a Chinese intelligence group!
My Space
Image Source: Reddit
Okay so, Myspace might be a little bit outdated these days, most of us have transferred over to the bigger and more popular sites like Facebook and Twitter; but that doesn't mean that myspace wasn't targeted by data hackers. In 2013, a Russian hacker managed to gather the data of nearly 400 million users, and if someone was to view the breach, they would be able to completely control the account for the foreseeable future. Thankfully, all hacked accounts had their passwords removed and users were forced to re-enter them if they wished to get back in!
Twitter
Image Source: Bored Panda
From one massive social media company to an even larger social media company! Twitter is another of those companies that can regularly be targeted by hackers due to the huge amount of users that depend on the site every single day. The first major breach came in 2013 when 250,00 users had their accounts hacked although nothing really came of it. The big one however, came in 2018 when more than 300 million accounts had their passwords exposed, all as a result of a glitch in the Twitter system. That could have been dangerous!
Deep Root Analytics
Image Source: Illinois Public Media
Deep Root Analytics were a pretty unknown company before an issue during an election, which caused the Republican party to be looked down on slightly as they had employed them! Crazily (by accident) the company left a database that contained nearly 200 voters records open for anyone to see if they were to come across it. The scary thing that comes from this is that, a company you probably didn't know exist have a database containing pretty much all of your personal information, all in order to paint a picture of the political system in the US.
Experian
Image Source: Reddit
Back in 2013, UK company Experian's subsidiary, Court Ventures had more than 200 million of their users' information stolen which ultimately became one of the biggest financial data breaches in the history of the industry. The whole situation becomes a whole lot worse when you find out just how easily the hacker was able to access 200 million peoples financial information! By just pretending to be a private investigator he managed to trick workers in to giving him access to records database which he then used to sell peoples personal information like social security numbers. Imagine being the person who fell for that!
Dubsmash
Image Source: Capital
Dubsmash had a brief period of being super viral during the late 2010's with celebrities (and normals like us) enjoying looking stupid lip syncing in front of the camera. So during 2019 hackers attacked the company in order to post personal data like passwords, email addresses and names on the dark web. This was all part of a hacking scheme, meaning that Dubsmash was targeted alongside more than 10, separate other companies, showing how easy it was for them to hack in to all of our accounts. Probably for the best it died off then!
Adobe
Image Source: Reddit
Users of the Adobe Creative Cloud were given the information that their records were left unprotected and therefore viewable by pretty much everyone back in 2019, although once alerted, the company managed to quickly secure the information on the same day. Although the information that was available in the leak wasn't particularly harmful, it did leave the users open to phishing scams as they had access to email addresses as well as specific data in regards to their own adobe accounts, when the used them and how often they logged in!
MyFitnessPal
Image Source: Reddit
Under Armour's MyFitnessPal application has become one of the most used when it comes to the fitness industry, so it was quite alarming back in 2018 when it was revealed that they had suffered from a data breach. The issue with this breach was that the hackers were able to access both personal data like our names, dates of birth etc. but also that they were able to gain our financial information too (those that paid for the premium!). If you were one of the users to have been affected by the breach you would have received an email requesting you to reset, so don't worry if you've just heard about it!
Equifax
Image Source: Reddit
Equifax are known to be one of the largest credit reporting agencies around the world, collecting information on millions of people and businesses worldwide. So in 2017 when it was announced that nearly 150 million people's information had been compromised (with most unaware they even had their data AGAIN) people rightfully lost their mind a little bit. As a result of the way the breach occurred they were forced to settle the case financially, although as you can see above, some people were left a little short changed.
eBay
Image Source: Reddit
We've probably all used or at least browsed eBay at some point in our lives, although it has died off a little since some of its competitors have taken over. Back in 2014 however, they suffered a huge data breach with nearly 150 million users having their passwords and personal information compromised. Although they claimed that no financial information was stolen, it was a huge worry at the time as eBay owned popular financial chain PayPal too. I'm sure they probably lost a lot of trust as a result of this breach!
Badoo
Image Source: The Mirror
Although a number of Badoo officials and spokespeople came out claiming that there was no such thing as a data breach it became increasingly clearer that this was false as the months went by. On the dark web, user accounts and the information associated with the accounts like email addresses, passwords and dates of birth began appearing and breach security sites also began receiving word that this had happened too! The number of people affected was never actually released although it was estimated to be around the 100 million mark.
Quora
Image Source: Quora
If you're the sort of person to google mundane, random questions via the internet then you've probably com across the Q&A site Quora at some point before. However, those with accounts on the site were at risk from a public data breach back in 2018 when around 100 million users ended up having their names, addresses and passwords leaked. Fortunately, if you had posted a question anonymously that you really didn't want anyone to know was you, you were safe from being revealed by the hackers!
My Heritage
Image Source: Reddit
MyHeritage gained a lot of traction towards the back end of the 2010's with a load of people hoping to discover where their genealogy showed they were truly from. Following the company being notified via a security expert, that they had found a leak from outside the company, they discovered that nearly 100 million people had their email addresses and passwords compromised. Fortunately, there appeared to be no criminal aspect to the hack; seems like a lot of hassle when all people want to do is discover where they're from!
Anthem
Image Source: Healthcare Financial News
It's quite scary when you discover just how quickly and easily that people can hack in to databases and in the case of this Anthem hack, it was used for criminal gain! One person clicked on a link from a phishing email which ultimately caused the information of nearly 80 million users (current and former) to be stolen. The problem was that the hack managed to go unnoticed for weeks and left millions at risk of having their identities stolen. They ultimately settled in court in one of the largest data breaches regarding healthcare ever.
Uber
Image Source: Reddit
Uber has become one of the most commonly found applications on peoples phones these days, with both the private taxiing service and food delivery service becoming incredibly popular. However, during 2016 security experts at Uber found that there were 2 unknown people that had access to the names and phone numbers of around 60 million Uber users as well as the drivers licence details of more than half a million of their drivers! Had this information fallen in to the wrong hands it could have had massive implications!
The Home Depot
Image Source: Reddit
Although Home Depot is still one of the most commonly visited stores here in the US, you might remember the massive data breach that occurred back in 2014. They revealed that their point of sale systems had been targeted by hackers which ultimately led to the largest retail data breach to have ever been recorded! Criminals had managed to gain more then 50 million US citizens credit card numbers and they managed to keep this going for more than 5 months until they were detected! They'll have definitely learned from their mistake as it cost them more than $200m to resolve.
Ashley Madison
Image Source: Insider
To be honest, it seems like this is a little bit of karma at work doesn't it? I mean, if you're signing up to a website where the sole purpose is to cheat on your partner then you probably don't deserve the best things in life to happen to you! A group known as 'The Impact Team' managed to steal the data and said they would release all the info if the websites weren't taken down and, following their refusal, more than 60GB of users details were released in to the world causing, I'm sure, many relationships to go in to meltdown.
MGM Grand
Image Source: Reddit
The MGM resorts company are the second related to the hotel industry to have featured on this list, although residents at these hotels often tend to be those of the slightly more affluent variety. The hackers managed to gain guest records of more than 10 million visitors and this included some celebrities including Justin Bieber and other government officials! Essentially, they had access to all the information that anyone would need in order to begin targeting the theft of their identity. Quite a scary thought isn't it?
Twitch
Image Source: Wired
If you aren't much of a gamer then you might not be fully aware of the Amazon-Owned streaming site Twitch. During 2021, there was around 100GB of data leaked online which included documents regarding how much money some of the top earners actually managed to earn throughout the prior two years. And to make things worse, these streamers actually confirmed that the details were 100% correct within the leak! Besides this, the leak even managed to give off some of the companies future plans too!
Los Angeles Unified School District
Image Source: Reddit
The Los Angeles Unified School District help ensure that the education within the local community runs smoothly and they're even responsible for helping parents ensure that their kids are well fed too! However, last year they were the victims of one of the largest data breaches ever recorded in regards to the education industry! Records compromised as part of the breach included driver's licence numbers and social security numbers, but also weirdly the some of the students' assessment records and details about the teachers! Creepy.
Zoom
Image Source: Reddit
I'm sure we all remember that sudden rush that workplaces went through in order to set up Zoom so that meetings and lectures could still take place during the covid pandemic. With that sudden surge in use though, hackers found a new way to try and breach companies data! People's passwords were found and in turn confidentiality was broken in regards to online virtual meetings between employees! Many people had to reset their passwords whilst many employers chose to ban the application, period.
Nintendo
Image Source: Reddit
Okay so Nintendo aren't an American company, sure, but they are a company that is still extremely popular here in the US and also around the rest of the world. Leaks began appearing from WITHIN the company regarding upcoming games in 2018 and is still continuing to this day, but in regards to our own information, 300,000 accounts were compromised back in 2020. These accounts were then used for financial gain by the hackers as they used random people's accounts in order to make purchases off of the digital store!
Pegasus Airlines
Image Source: Newsweek
Yet another (Non-American, sorry) that suffered a data breach as a result of accidentally not protecting their users' data was Pegasus Airlines. Essentially, a whole range of information was stored, but not protected properly meaning that unauthorized people were able to access the information that included files upon files of passwords as well as flight charts and a load of information about the companies crew members! You can probably imagine the pilots and stewards weren't particularly happy when they turned up for work that morning!
Mail Chimp
Image Source: Muse by Cilo
Within the space of a year between last January and this, popular email specialists, Mailchimp actually suffered from three seperate data breach incidents! These breaches occured as a result of phishing the employees, stealing their credentials and then posing as Mailchimp employees! Fortunately, they managed to swamp out most of the hackers before any real damage was done, with less than 1000 accounts ending up being at risk. Still, you might want to think again about storing any info with them!
Exactis
Image Source: FlaglerLive.com
This one is actually a little scary as most people who were affected by the Exactis firm actually weren't even aware that the company had access to their data. One security expert here in the US actually didn't mean to find the breach but he did come across more than 300 million people's personal information like phone numbers, addresses and even the names and ages of all of these people's children! Crazily, some of the people's data even had some information like what religion they followed, whether they wore glasses or if they smoked! How did they get that info?
Dropbox
Image Source: Reddit
Although a number of us probably view Dropbox as an efficient and most importantly, safe way of sharing files, they have actually had quite the history when it comes to data breaches. Back in 2012 they managed to accidentally leak nearly 70 users personal information and at the time they claimed it was just peoples' email addresses that were leaked, although 4 (YES FOUR) years later they finally announced that all of these users likely had their passwords compromised as well. Imagine how much those people could have lost!