Top 10 Data Breaches and Company Hacks

It seems like the thing to do if you plan on taking down a chain of well-known stores is to take out the parent company. At least in this case it was. Originating at the end of 2006, the computer systems intrusion of the American apparel and home goods company TJX was only discovered and announced by anti-fraud agents the following year. By then, the culprit had compromised over 45 million credit and debit card numbers as well as the personal information of 450,000 TJX customers. With popular stores such as Marshalls and HomeGoods under its umbrella, TJX ended up suffering a major loss of about $256 million due to the compromise. In the end, 11 men were charged for the crime, including alleged mastermind Albert Gonzalez.

When it’s your job to hold financial information, it’s not surprising to find yourself targeted by malicious individuals or groups. In 2008, spyware was installed onto the systems of the Fortune 500 company known as Heartland Payment in order to gather data from businesses. The security breach, which was announced in early 2009, exposed users’ financial information to hacker Albert Gonzalez, who was arrested and sentenced to 2 decades in prison in 2010. This was the longest sentence given for a cyber crime in history to that point. While the resulting financial loss for Heartland was less than our previous entry - at $110 million - the compromised systems included the exposure of some 130 million card numbers.

Let’s face it: our society is obsessed with celebrities. So whenever anything is leaked about their personal lives, it’s gonna spread like wildfire. So when a hacker used phishing and brute force guessing against Apple’s iCloud to access many celebrities’ private photos and leaked them to the public in 2014, the Internet went crazy. Known as the “Fappening” because of the photos’ graphic content, many celebrities such as Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, and Kaley Cuoco were affected. While the actual leaking of nudes is not an uncommon event, the Internet – as evidenced by this celebrity photo hack – turned it into a modern hacking phenomenon. Thanks a lot, Internet. Meanwhile, several people remain under investigation in relation to the case.

Those who subscribe to our next entry for their daily deals may’ve gotten more than they bargained for in 2013. In April of that year, a professional hacker group was able to force their way into LivingSocial’s encrypted systems and obtain information on over 50 million customers. Not limited to e-mail addresses, the database hack saw hackers sneak away with information like names, passwords, and birth dates – though the company was quick to reassure registered users that no credit card info was compromised. Almost all of the company’s users were affected, except for some in particular Asian countries, as their info was stored on separate systems.

This e-mail marketer is one of the biggest sources of communication between modern corporations. Unfortunately, in 2011, databases containing information on about 50 of their clients, including JPMorgan Chase and Best Buy, had been mysteriously stolen by cyber criminals. While the culprits were only able to obtain individuals’ e-mail addresses and the exact number of those affected is unknown, estimates put the number as high as 250 million.

Back in October 2013, this massive computer software company was the victim of a sophisticated security attack across Adobe’s expansive catalogue. This destructive intrusion was able to steal monumental amounts of personal information from at least 38 million users, including credit card info, regardless of which Adobe platform was used. Hackers were also able to obtain the source code of Adobe products in what has been called one of the worst breaches in American history. Adobe later tried to rectify the situation by offering victims one year of free credit monitoring.

Our next entry is why you should never attack the gaming world. Breached by an un-named hacking group in April 2011, the Sony entertainment service known as the PlayStation Network saw the compromise of the personal information of 77 million users, including their credit card numbers and e-mail addresses. This massive breach caused Sony to shut down the service, resulting in an outage that lasted 23 days. The Japanese conglomerate later came under fire for not reporting possible theft until a week following the attack. In order to save their consumer base, Sony offered free games and monthly subscriptions to affected gamers, with some estimates putting overall damages to the company as high as $2 billion.

Retail data breaches seem to be a trend in the 21st century. If you happened to have your information on file with the retail giant known as Target in 2013, you are probably one of the 110 million customers affected by one of the largest leaks in history. Targeted by numerous unknown hackers, many customers of the corporation saw their identification and financial information extracted and released on the web. The massive backlash that followed the data breach resulted in numerous high-ranking officials stepping down, as well as a proposed $19 million settlement with MasterCard.

When you are using a site that functions as a service to help you conduct extramarital affairs, you are already skating close to the line as it is. In the most recent hack on our list, a hacker group known as “The Impact Team” decided enough was enough and accessed Ashley Madison’s user database, copying about 25 gigabytes of their details. After requests for the site’s shutdown were ignored, the group released the data in two individual “dumps,” which resulted in a large amount of public shaming and unconfirmed suicide incidents.

Before we leak our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
- Google
2010
- Heartbleed
2014
- CardSystems Solutions
2005
- The Home Depot
2014
- Facebook
2013

If you release something controversial that’s likely to anger a large group of people, don’t be shocked if they decide to retaliate. In supposed opposition to the release of the comedy film “The Interview”, a hacker group known as the “Guardians of Peace” found a way to access a large amount of confidential information from Sony Pictures. Not standing down, the company released the film – which revolved around a plot to kill North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. Sticking by their threat, the GOP revealed much of the inner workings of the company, which included personal e-mails, financial info, and future film scripts. While initially North Korea was suspected of sponsoring the hack, many officials still have doubts, with the country having denied any involvement in the cyberattack.

Do you agree with our list? What do you think was the most destructive hack? For more breach-worthy top tens published every day, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.