Despite its frightening definition, and even more frightening impacts, hacking does not normally receive the attention it deserves. This is surprising when we consider how of the 15 largest data breaches in history, 10 took place in the last decade, according to The Business Insider.
But when we think of data breaches, it is not always hacking that comes to mind. Perhaps one of the most extensively publicized breaches in history was the Cambridge Analytica Scandal. Once a reputable and now scandal-ridden data analytics company, Cambridge Analytica harvested millions of voters data and used it to influence elections and political events across the world.
Although the devastating impacts of this scandal are indisputable, it is not a stand-alone incident.
There have been many other data breaches of a relatively similar scale that seemed to have slipped under the radar.
Even if we turn to moz.com and look at the data behind this. The phrase “Cambridge Analytica’ receives between 11,500 and 30,300 searches every month.
The word “hacking”, on the other hand, only receives between 2,900 and 4,300 searches per month.
This is shocking when we consider that hacking and cyberattacks unless specifically combated against, have the potential to target everybody from a multinational corporation to a small privately held business. This blog post aims to bring to light the hacking incidents that many companies hoped you would forget.
The Yahoo data breach of 2014 (reported in 2016), did, admittedly, garner some attention. Most people know that Yahoo’s system was compromised, that data was stolen and that if you met very specific criteria you may have even received some compensation because of it. However, very few know what exactly happened.