Posted on February 22, 2019 at 4:59 AM

The 10 Biggest Corporate Hacks in History

There have been many data breaches in the history of the internet. Some of the breaches were small while others were huge. Some of them happened in the early days of the internet, while others have happened in recent years. Corporate hacks are responsible for huge losses. The focus on most pundits over the past few years has been to develop a great push to bring solutions that will reduce the prevalence of hacks. Let us look at some of the biggest corporate hacks in history.

1. JPMorgan Hack

Banks are often targeted by hackers because they provide an easy option for those looking to get away with money. JPMorgan Chase was attacked in 2014 and a number of servers belonging to the company were compromised. The hack resulted in the loss of data for millions of accounts. The data lost was then later used by the hackers to run schemes which cost the bank about $100 million. The hack was heavily covered and analyzed by media.

2. LinkedIn

In 2012, LinkedIn was targeted by hackers. The platform that seeks to connect professionals around the world saw millions of its accounts being hacked. Initially, the company had reported that only 6.5 million accounts had been compromised. Four years later though, it emerged that over 100 million accounts had been hacked and the data associated with those accounts were on sale online.

3. Hilton Hotels

Many big international brands often fall victim of hacking successes. As Jamie Cambell from GobestVPN notes, some of the big companies are attacked because of the value of customer data. Hilton Hotels, the hotel chain company was targeted in 2015 by hackers. Information pertaining to finance status was stolen as a result of the hack. Many experts recommend that some of these attacks can be reduced via the use of VPN solutions.

4. Target

The Target is one of the famous hacks of the decade. In 2013, the big shopping store was hacked and the result of the hack was the loss of personal information for millions of customers. The loss of financial and other sensitive information from the shopping store’s users led to the resignation of the CEO.

5. Home Depot

According to Barkly, attacks that target emails are still very common. Recent reports show that a huge surge in attacks has been recorded. Attacks that specifically target emails are by up to 45%. In 2014, over 50 million customers from Home Depot lost email and other sensitive information. The loss of the sensitive information cost the company about $179 million. Much of this money was used to pay form settlements for customer cases.

6. Sony

Hacking attacks are not limited to companies that deal with multiple customers directly. Sometimes, the attacks target big companies in the entertainment industry for political reasons. Sony is an entertainment company that was hacked by attacks in 2014 in a hack that was characterized as political. Sony had previously broadcasted a movie that was viewed by North Korea as offensive to their leader. The attack was thus seen as a response by North Korea.

7. Law Firm Hacks

While most attacks tend to focus on stealing information for fraudulent purposes, some attacks are simply all about extortion and sabotage. Two law firms were attacked in 2015 by Chinese hackers. These law firms had stored sensitive corporate information which the hackers stole. The specific information touched on impending corporate mergers and the firms were forced to pay $4 million in an information trade.

8. Swift

In 2016, Swift was targeted by North Korean attackers. The hackers compromised the system which had flaws in its design to steal over $80 million dollars from an account belonging to the Bangladesh Central Bank. This was all done in the attack that targeted New York Federal Reserve.

9. Tesco

Another financial institution that has been attacked recently is Tesco. This bank lost about $3.2 million in an attack that targeted several thousand accounts. This attack was devastating to the bank which was forced to compensate its customers for all the losses.

10. Chipotle

Chipotle is a well-known brand in the food industry. Chipotle was attacked in 2017 in a hack that saw criminals use phishing attacks to steal sensitive customer data. The attack affected millions of restaurants customers.