Cyberattacks are one of the biggest threats many businesses face today. This is a large reason why so many companies invest so much time and money to
prevent data breaches. Given how much we rely on the internet and computers, every industry is vulnerable. Every industry has a responsibility to protect their employees, partners, and customers because if cybersecurity isn’t a priority, a company will likely face huge repercussions. To learn from past mistakes, here are some of the largest cyberattacks on business.
Yahoo!
From 2013 to 2014, Yahoo! faced one of the largest cyber-attacks on a business with over three billion user accounts affected. The Yahoo! hackers were able to obtain names, email addresses, phone numbers, and birthdates. As a result, Yahoo! lost over $350 million from its sale price. As a result of the hack, Verizon ended up buying Yahoo! for $4.8 billion in 2016.
Marriott
Another significant data breach happened to Marriott International from 2014 to 2018. Around 500 million Marriott customers suffered from stolen data, such as contact information, passport number, travel information, and more. This breach happened to Starwood hotels in 2014, and Marriott took on the issue after acquiring them in 2016. However, they were unaware of this fact upon purchase, as they didn’t discover the data breach until 2018.
Adult Friend Finder
Internet hackers were able to obtain 412.2 million accounts on The FriendFinder Network. The information collected included names, passwords, email addresses, and more back from over 20 years. It then came to light this data breach had been Local File Inclusion.
Target
Even though there is one of the biggest retail chains in the United States, Target experienced a hack in 2013. Hackers collected contact, credit, and debit card information, which harmed up to 110 million people right as the holiday season hit. Attackers pulled off the hack via malware in Target’s cash registers. The cost of the Target data breach was around $202 million.
