2015 saw several prominent hacks that resulted in millions of exposed private data. As attacks become more sophisticated and resilient to detection, hackers are able to breach bigger companies with larger data sets. Here are some of the most prominent and famous breaches of 2015.
VTech: Exposed Children’s Data
Most attacks target adult information. They are the ones with credit card information and social security numbers with credit scores. However, the VTech attack targeted a children’s toy manufacturer. VTech sells mobile devices for children, so hackers were able to gain not only parent’s information, but they also breached millions of children’s data. They were able to gain access to children’s audio and video taken as they played with their devices. Overall, the hackers were able to gain access to 190GB of data.
Ashley Madison: Cheating Spouse’s Breached Data
With the Ashley Madison hack, the damages were more than just user information. Ashley Madison is a famous site known for its motto “Life is short. Have an affair.” The hackers were able to get first names and email addresses from the company’s database of more than 30 million users.
After Ashley Madison’s database was hacked, some more entrepreneurial hackers began contacting users on the exposed email list to extort them out of money. The list was also made public, so any spouse wondering about their significant other’s fidelity could perform a search on the data.
The list was a gold mine for divorce attorneys who used the information for marketing. The hack ruined lives in addition to causing concern for exposed sensitive financial data.
The Hacking Team: Adobe Flash Exploit
The Hacking Team sold surveillance software to repressive governments across the globe. Its products and way of marketing weren’t the main newsworthy piece of information that became of its data breach.
The big concern from Hacking Team’s breach was its documented ability to use Adobe’s Flash software to remote control a PC. Since Adobe Flash is installed on a majority of the world’s browsers, the exploit left millions of personal computers exposed. It’s what made several main browser manufacturers decide to disable Flash.
Adobe was forced to do an emergency update of its software, and the breach left Flash disabled from many main browsers such as Firefox and Chrome.
OPM: Government Workers’ Data Exposed
China and the US are continually attacking each other with advanced attacks. This year Chinese hackers are allegedly behind an attack on a US government employee website that contained millions of personnel’s data. Up to 18 million employees had their information leaked in the breach.
The hack was one of the most politically motivated attacks of the year, and it even caused the president of OPM, Katherine Archuleta, to resign from her position. It’s been shrouded in conspiracy theories and questions as no information has been released as to how it happened and who performed the breach. In addition to the breach, many US officials won’t participate in the investigation.
With the increased hacks on government sites, official workers are advised to be more cautious especially online.
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