Company attributes
What is the difference between a data leak and a hack? Breach is the unintentional release of sensitive information into an insecure environment. The main cause of data leakage is usually human error, negligence or incompetence without malicious intent. Hacking is the modification of software or hardware and the result of malicious behavior by cybercriminals who want to steal personal information. Let's take a look at some of the biggest hacks and data breaches of the past 10 years.
Marriott International: In November 2018, cybercriminals stole the data of 500 million customers. The stolen data included guest numbers, passport numbers, credit card numbers and contact information. It is believed to be attributed to a group of Chinese intelligence agencies that collected data on US citizens.
Yahoo: Approximately 3 billion user data was hacked in 2013 and 2014, including email addresses, passwords, dates of birth, phone numbers, and other personal data. The hackers were able to access the Yahoo network through a phishing scheme due to poor security.
eBay: In May 2014, cybercriminals were able to break into a company network using the data of corporate employees. Access to personal information from 145 million users.
Equifax: In May 2017, the credit bureau faced a data breach that exposed the data of over 147 million users. The hack occurred as a result of an application vulnerability on one of the company's websites. Equifax has agreed to pay $700 million to conduct federal and state investigations into how the data breaches were handled.
Deep Root Analytics: In June 2017, cyber experts discovered that voter information from 198 million Americans was stored on a public server. It turned out that the Republican National Committee hired Deep Root Analytics, which did not secure voter information.
River City Media: In March 2017, 1.4 billion records were leaked after marketing company River City Media failed to properly set up a backup, leaving the entire database of personal information posted online.
Sony PlayStation Network: In April 2011, hackers accessed the personal information of over 77 million users, including full names, passwords, credit card information, home addresses and purchase history. The PlayStation Network service has also been down for a month. This is considered to be one of the worst gaming community data breaches ever.
Stuxnet: In 2010, a computer worm called Stuxnet was discovered that caused significant damage to Iran's nuclear program, destroying 984 uranium enrichment centrifuges.
Facebook: In September 2018, the biggest breach in the history of Facebook was discovered. The personal details of almost 50 million users were exposed after Facebook was attacked and hackers gained access to user accounts. The attack follows a scandal last year when Cambridge Analytica accessed the private information of 87 million users.
Cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets are a huge target for hackers, having made hundreds of millions of dollars over the past few years. Let's take a look at some of the biggest hacks and data breaches in the crypto space.
MT. Gox: Between 2011 and 2014, the exchange was subjected to numerous attacks, in which hackers stole about 750,000 bitcoins and about 100,000 of their own bitcoins, worth $473 million at the time. This led to the announcement of the exchange about bankruptcy and closure.
Upbit: In November 2019, the exchange lost 342,000 Ethereum worth $49 million at the time due to an "abnormal transaction".
Bitfinex: In August 2016, the exchange was hacked and lost 119,756 bitcoins, making it the second largest bitcoin hack in history. Attackers exploited a vulnerability in the multi-sig system used to sign withdrawals.
Bithumb: Less than a year after losing $31M in a hack, Bithumb was hacked again in March 2019, losing another $13M in EOS and $6.2M in XRP. Bithamb suspected it was an inside job.
Bitcoinica: In 2012, the Bitcoin trading platform was subjected to numerous attacks resulting in 65,250 Bitcoins being stolen by hackers. This happened as a result of the trading platform storing a large number of cryptocurrencies in a hot wallet that is online, and not in a cold wallet that is stored offline.
Binance: In August 2019, Binance was the victim of a hack that resulted in the theft of 7,000 bitcoins worth over $40 million at the time, as well as 2FA codes and API tokens. The exchange fell victim to yet another hack in 2018, resulting in KYC information being publicly leaked to millions of users.
Parity Multi-Sig Wallet: Following the discovery and exploitation of several smart contract vulnerabilities, $30 million in Ethereum was stolen and another $154 million remained in the affected wallets.
Other hacks, including many other leading crypto exchanges, resulted in a total of $292 million and 510,000 user logins being stolen in 2019 alone.
The lesson we can learn here is: not your keys, not your coins. Never store your assets on exchanges.
In these days when cryptocurrencies have become so popular, it is important to take various security measures to protect yourself as you are more than ever at risk of hacking and data leakage.
1. Make sure your computer is safe: keep your operating system and antivirus software up to date. Consider switching to Linux, Qubes or Unix as they are all much more secure than Windows and macOS.
2. Use super-strong passwords: Make sure your password contains upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters. Never reuse the same password for another exchange or wallet. Do not use passwords that are easy to guess, such as your date of birth, etc.
Don't Use Mobile Authentication: Never use an SMS-based mobile authenticator as it's getting easier for attackers to port your number and steal your one-time PIN. Instead, use an authentication app like Google Authenticator, which uses much more secure one-time time-based pins.
Never store cryptocurrencies on exchanges: instead, store coins in a wallet that you control, such as a desktop wallet. The most secure way to store your crypto assets is to use a paper wallet or hardware wallets such as a Ledger or Trezor wallet. Both have their pros and cons. You can find out more here.
Stay safe online: monitor your browser, stay away from insecure websites, install an ad blocker so your online activities are not tracked by ads, don't follow unknown links, don't download unknown files, and don't use end-to-end encrypted messengers, e.g. Telegram.
