The past few years have seen the frequency of cyber attacks plummet to record levels. Compared to 2020, the number of successful hacks in 2021 was significantly higher. Hackers are undoubtedly becoming smarter and continuously wreaking havoc on public and private institutions. The worst affected victims are those on social sites, manufacturing, and security sectors.

With hacking incidents at an all-time high, most folks are reconsidering their relationship with social platforms. Publicly exposed data often breaks up families, ruins people’s reputations and brings massive losses to the affected organizations.

Recent Data Breaches You Should Know About

Over the years, we have seen countless hacking cases. So, let’s look at some of these events that have terrorized online users and organizations in the recent times:

LinkedIn Hack 2021

Hacks affect small and big companies alike. LinkedIn became the latest casualty of hacking after the data of over 650 million people was leaked. Information stolen from this giant platform was then sold on multiple telegram channels. Most of the information stolen was already public knowledge, although some of the information was retrieved from other platforms.

Android Data breach

Improper configuration of cloud servers resulted in the leaking of huge amounts of data for android clients to the public. Many of the avenues utilized by about 22 apps enabled the retrieval of crucial data of many android users. Some of the information that was accessible included users’ pictures, passwords, sexual orientation, mobile contacts, and billing information.

Stripchat Leak

Stripchat, a famous cam platform, recently got infiltrated. The infiltration led to an excess of 150 million stripchat clients’ records being made available on the internet. The adult site had clients north of 50M whose data was dumped on the internet. Among the people impacted by the leak were viewers and models. The illegally retrieved data was made available for the public to retrieve without entering any password. Information including payments, chats, timelines for when customer accounts were set up, and more critical information was exposed.

Cam4 Data Breach

Among the many adult streaming platforms hacked in 2021 was Cam4. This platform’s servers were easy to hack since they didn’t have sophisticated encryption. From the hack, it was established that clients’ passcodes, real identities, billings, and lots of sensitive data were stolen. Billions of data records were leaked, and the people most affected were US and Italian users, who make up the majority of its population.

SocialArks Leak

SocialArks, a famous Chinese media agency, recently joined the growing list of casualties of a huge data breach that saw an excess of 150 million records dumped onto the public domain. Like numerous other compromised companies, this hack was a result of a faulty database. Since this organization handled clients from different nationalities, data retrieved from the company’s server was quite extensive. Plenty of its clients’ social media data was laid bare because of this vulnerability.

T-Mobile Data Breach

T-Mobile is also among the numerous organizations that were recently infiltrated by hackers. The infiltration took place in 2021, and excessive amounts of data were obtained from the company’s server. Plenty of data was exposed to the public, including existing and prospective clients. Furthermore, clients’ real identities, social security numbers, and such crucial data were put out in the open.

People GIS Data Breach

This organization got infiltrated, and the hack affected very many people in various US cities. The infiltration took place in 2021, and very many of the organizations’ clients had their private data dumped online. The infiltration occurred as a result of unauthorized access to poorly configured Amazon’s S3 buckets. Clients using ‘mapsonline.net’ had their crucial data leaked, including their building plans, emails, and postal information.

Utah-Based COVID testing Company Data Breach

Keeping information on a public server is never a good idea. A Utah-based COVID testing firm learned this the hard way when delicate information belonging to an excess of 50,000 clients was exposed in 2021. Examples of crucial information compromised in this leak included patients’ passports, IDs, test results, and such sensitive information.

MeetMindful leak

This social site recently became a victim of a nasty hack. Lots of information was uploaded online for the general public to see. The hack occurred in 2021, and information amounting to 1.2 GB of data was uploaded to a public file storage platform. The violation impacted an excess of 1.5 million MeetMindful clients with delicate information being left vulnerable online. The leaked information included Facebook user accounts, real names, body types, marital status, partner preferences, and geolocation information.

Audi Breach

Audi, VW’s exquisite brand, was another victim of a big hack that compromised their clients’ details. The hack impacted an excess of 2 million clients who had contact with the brand. Plenty of clients’ data was illegally obtained from the company’s database. The data consisted of clients’ identities, contact details, car details, emails, and postal information. All this information was made available on a publicly accessible online platform that any interested person could access.

How Do Most Data Breaches Occur?

Phishing

Cybercriminals are excessively using this hacking technique to exploit their unsuspecting victims. This technique involves stealing someone’s private info through an email, a phone call, or text message. Normally, these criminals present themselves as genuine people you can trust. They then trick you into sending them your email or passcodes. If you happen to meet someone via email or on a social platform, always use Nuwber to confirm their real identity. And never share personal important details with someone you’ve never met in person.

Automated Bots

People often use bots as a substitute for hiring customer service agents or virtual assistants. They can help create posts and send text messages to your clients on your website or application. Bots can also send spam, retrieve users’ data and strike DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks that let hackers access your device and network.

Conclusion

Hacking incidents are becoming increasingly prevalent particularly since more organizations prefer storing their information in the cloud. Additionally, hackers are actively devising new ways of attacks. Individuals and organizations should, therefore, be proactive about enhancing their network and database security.