To help put all this in perspective, we’ll recap the five most recent, and notable, data breaches in America, and the consequences to which they’ve led. Each of the following data breaches has a “risk score,” based on many factors: financial loss, the amount of sensitive information lost, and the damage it caused to the company in question, its customers, and its partners. The following data breach ratings are presented in descending order.
Equifax
Headquarters: Atlanta, Georgia, United States
EquifaxRiver City MediaDeep Root Analytics/ Republican National CommitteeAlteryxCenter for Election Systems at Kennesaw State UniversityWhat if my personal data was exposed?
July 12, 2017 Risk Score: 10.0 143 million records Equifax, one of the three major credit reporting agencies, suffered a massive data breach in mid-May through July 2017. If you have a credit report, there’s a good chance you’re one of the 143 million Americans whose sensitive personal information was exposed in this Equifax data breach. During the attack, malicious outsiders managed to steal data containing people’s names, Social Security Numbers, birth dates, addresses, and in many cases, driver’s license numbers. They also hacked credit card numbers for 209,000 people, and dispute documents with personal identifying information for about 182,000 people.
River City Media
Headquarters: Jackson, Wyoming, United States June 3, 2017 Risk Score: 9.8 1.3 billion records River City Media, a huge email marketing organization, failed to safeguard backups of its database containing 1.3 billion email accounts. Besides emails, the database included users’ real names, IP addresses, and often physical address. River City Media used the following personal data in its spam email campaign. In the emails, the company promised “credit checks, education opportunities, and sweepstakes.” There’s a risk that your personal data, or the data of someone you know, was made public.
Deep Root Analytics/ Republican National Committee
Headquarters: Arlington, Virginia, United States June 13, 2017 Risk Score: 9.6 198 million records
Alteryx
Headquarters: Irvine, California, United States December 19, 2017 Risk Score: 9.4 123 million records
Center for Election Systems at Kennesaw State University
Headquarters: Kennesaw, Georgia, United States March 3, 2017 Risk Score: 9.1 7.5 million records During a breach of the Kennesaw State University (KSU) Center for Election Systems, sensitive data on Georgia’s 6.7 million voters was exposed to potential hackers, and remained accessible for months. The data included Social Security Numbers, party affiliation, and birthdates — as well as passwords used by county officials to access election management files. The center was notified about the possible vulnerabilities in August 2016, however, didn’t take the necessary security measures rectify the problem.
What if my personal data was exposed?
There’s literally thousands of data breaches we could discuss, but we chose the biggest breaches that could potentially affect you, your family, and your friends. With that in mind, we urge you to take a moment and visit OneRep.com and see exactly which websites are posting information about you online. OneRep’s service has proved itself invaluable to many customers and is a “must have” for anyone who cares about their online privacy and security. OneRep can automatically remove your name, address, credit history, birthdate, and other information from the Internet, and their ongoing privacy protection continually monitors the internet for relisted records and removes them on your behalf. We also recommend to try OneRep 5-day free trial plan which includes the Internet scanning, removal of your personal information from 62 people-search websites and premium support.
