2018 has been a dramatic year for data breaches. That year witnessed tons of data breaches. Unauthorized parties compromised 4.5 billion records. Notably, those occurred in just the first half of 2018. In this article, we’ll see the top 10 cybersecurity threats 2018.
2018: A Year Of Cyber Disaster
Moreover, 2018 cyber-attacks affected huge companies. But not only them. From government entities to retail to foodservice companies, no one is safe.
Why does cybersecurity threats don’t decrease despite growing technology? One reason is corporate security isn’t getting better fast enough. Furthermore, many hackers are getting bolder. Also, their methods get more complex.
Data Breach – Most Common Of All
As we have mentioned earlier, data breaches are the most common of cyberthreats.
Breaches happen for a variety of reasons. Data can be mishandled or sold to third parties. Moreover, holes in a security system can leave the data unprotected.
We listed down the top 10 cybersecurity threats 2018.
Marriott
Marriott Starwood Hotels detected the data breach on September 10th, 2018. The company confirmed that up to 500 million guests’ info was stolen.
The information stolen was very huge. Also, hackers didn’t steal only the usual information. Some examples are phone numbers and email addresses. Moreover, hackers also took passport numbers, travel locations, and arrival and departure dates. But there’s more to that.
Cyber thieves accessed the reservation database for the hotel. Moreover, they copied and stole guests’ information.
Aadhar
This is the worst of top cybersecurity threats 2018. Moreover, culprits exposed 1.1 billion records. Similar to the Marriott incident, it is also unclear when Aadhar’s data breach started. However, the company discovered the breach in March 2018.
The leak allowed anyone to download all private information on all Aadhar holders. That info includes their names, 12-digit ID numbers, and bank accounts.
Indian government owns Aadhar. Indane, a state-owned utility company, runs one of the Aadhar systems.
British Airways
This happened from August 21, 2018 — September 5, 2018
Hackers robbed the personal data of an estimated 380,000 travelers. These travelers purchased airline tickets on the website and mobile app. Furthermore, the robbed data consisted of their full credit card information.
Remarkably, the company dealt with the problem transparently. They quickly admitted their mistake. Moreover, they quickly notified their clients about the problem and the solution.
Exactis
It is a marketing firm based in Florida. It had exposed 340 million individual records. To detail, hackers exposed the data on a publicly accessed server. Also, the data included phone numbers, addresses, and more.
Vinny Troia, a security expert, spotted the leak. “It is a database with pretty much every US citizen in it. It was left exposed on a publicly accessible server” he added.
Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s
It is unknown how much data was lost in this incident. On July 9, its customers’ data was leaked on DataBreaches.net. The leak included customers’ sensitive personal data.
Macy’s took a huge hit. It has been struggling to keep up with its online competitors. Also, find its place in the e-commerce market.
MyFitnessPal
Owned by UnderArmour, the fitness app leaked 150 million records. This happened in February 2018. In sum, an unauthorized party had access to data from user accounts. Some examples of compromised data were usernames and encrypted passwords.
Quora
In November 2018, a malicious third party accessed one of Quora’s systems. Furthermore, account info including names and encrypted passwords were compromised.
The breach happened from July 2017 — September 2018. Additionally, highly sensitive data, including contact details and recent searches, were leaked.
Hackers exploited the network’s code. Furthermore, they had full access to compromised users’ accounts. Also, they scraped the users’ data.
Google+
One of the top 10 cybersecurity threats 2018 involved this huge company. The glitch exposed 500,000 Google+ users’ data.
Another breach affected 52.5 million users. Because of that, Google decided to shut down the service in April 2019 for good.
Chegg
According to Chegg’s SEC filing: “An unauthorized party gained access to a Company database that hosts user data for chegg.com and certain of the Company’s family of brands such as EasyBib.”
