It is worrisome how frequently data breaches occur in businesses of all sizes. It’s evident that the threat environment has changed dramatically over the past several years given the recent high-profile assaults that have targeted industries such as healthcare, banking, retail, government, manufacturing, and energy.
Businesses are more susceptible than ever, and even major companies with strong cybersecurity safeguards may become victims. Lessons gathered from these assaults can help smaller firms develop their security plans for any contingency. This article highlights some of the most significant corporate data breaches from recent months, their origins, their effects, and what you should do to stay secure.
Top 5 Highest Profile Data Breaches in 2022
Microsoft
Even Microsoft, the biggest provider of personal computer software worldwide, frequently experiences cyberattacks and data breach concerns.
Microsoft was attacked on March 20, 2022, by the threat actor DEV-0537, also known as LAPSUS$. The threat group with a base in South America is well known for picking off businesses in the public sector, as well as those in the technology, telecom, media, retail, and healthcare industries. It targets these companies through a variety of techniques, including SIM-swapping to enable involving the acquisition, infiltrating employees’ individual email accounts at target companies, paying contacts at target companies for access to credentials and multifactor authentication (MFA) clearance, and more.
Microsoft said that the hacking effort had been stopped by March 22 and that just one account had been hacked thanks to strong security staff.
Read: Social Engineering Attacks: Common Technique and Prevention
Ronin
The fact that cryptocurrency is not kept in conventional banks is one of its attractions, but many crypto networks lack the security required to guard against a data breach. Ronin claimed being hacked for $540 million in April 2022. In addition to losing that money, they also had to pay their consumers back for what they had lost.
This is the second-largest cryptocurrency breach in history, and it won’t be the last. Even while the potential of accumulating more cryptocurrency riches and seeing non-fungible tokens appreciate in value is alluring, it’s crucial to assess the crypto network’s cyber security procedures to make sure your funds are protected from being compromised in a data leak.
Red Cross
It seems unlikely that someone would wish to attack the Red Cross, but it did so in January 2022. More than 500,000 pieces of information were exposed in an assault on a third-party contractor, including data that the Red Cross deemed “particularly susceptible.”
A massive data breach occurred at the non-profit charitable organization Red Cross. Their servers had information on people who had received assistance and services from the humanitarian organization’s at least 60 affiliates throughout the world.
In the end, thousands of individuals had their personal information taken, and the majority of the victims are presently missing or in danger. In order to stop the attack and look into this ostensibly political breach, the Red Cross pulled systems offline, but no one has been held accountable.
According to a Red Cross study, a data breach that happened on November 9th, 2021, was discovered within 70 days and was swiftly looked into.
The hackers gained access to the Red Cross’ networks and systems by using “advanced encryption methods to mask and shield their harmful applications” and leveraging an unpatched major vulnerability in an authentication module (CVE-2021-40539). Although the hackers have not yet made any wants, the Red Cross’ main worry is that they might expose, sell, or demand ransom on sensitive personal data and very susceptible families.
Read: The Depth of White Collar Crimes in 2022
Crypto.com
On January 17, 2022, one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, Crypto.com, had data breaches affecting about 483 individuals, costing them more than $30 million in bitcoin. After discovering suspicious behaviour on some accounts, where transactions were being allowed without the user entering the 2FA authentication control, Crypto.com instantly halted all withdrawals on their system.
Hackers were able to take 4,836.26 ETH (about $15 million), 443.93 BTC (around $18 million), and over $66,200 in other currencies from Crypto.com customers notwithstanding the fact that the crypto blockchain technology is among the most secure ways to execute transactions.
After completely compensating any affected consumers, Crypto.com aimed to switch to a new 2FA infrastructure, adding further layers of protection to stop any further monetary, reputational, and commercial losses.
Russia hacking
Russia has been waging relentless and careless cyberattacks on Ukraine for years. These assaults have resulted in blackouts, attempted election rigging, data theft, and the release of malicious software that has spread throughout the nation and the whole world. But since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. The two nations’ digital relationship has evolved as Ukraine mounts opposition while Russia struggles to sustain a significant and expensive kinetic conflict. As a result, Ukraine has been successfully hacking back while Russia has continued to bombard Ukrainian institutions and infrastructure with cyberattacks.
At the start, Ukraine created a volunteer “IT Army” that concentrated on launching DDoS assaults and disruptive cyberattacks on Russian institutions and services . The battle has attracted the attention and digital firepower of hacktivists from all around the world. A record number of data breaches and service interruptions have occurred in Russia as a result of various hacking attempts by Ukraine.
Read: The Metaverse; How Social Engineering Attacks will Dominate
How Businesses Can Effectively Prevent Data Breach
We may draw various conclusions from studying these five high-profile breaches in 2022, including:
Data breaches may happen to any firm, irrespective of its size, standing, or industry. If a company’s data is not adequately secured and routinely checked upon, or if its cybersecurity capabilities are not sufficiently safe for its clients, it can be especially exposed to data breaches.
Therefore, it is crucial for businesses to use efficient and all-encompassing cybersecurity solutions to safeguard their data. A complete cybersecurity solution like humanID is an illustration of how it is possible to safeguard the security and well-being of both businesses and their clients. By preserving user privacy, humanID has created one-click, anonymous authentication solutions that make using the internet safer. No private information is required or stolen. Presently, humanID provides applications and websites with an easy-to-use single sign-on tool and a CAPTCHA user authentication that may serve as an additional layer of security for many businesses.
Companies must spend money on apps and resources that can effectively address these recurrent cybersecurity concerns in order to reduce data leaks, assure stronger cybersecurity, quickly discover security breaches, and stop more firm data breaches.
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