Imagine this: You want to order that delicious pizza from your favourite food delivery app. Since we are all in the cashless mode, you choose to pay with your e-wallet. But when you reach check out, you find that your e-wallet is empty. You check your bank account linked with this app and you get the shock of your life – ZERO!
If you thought it couldn’t happen to you, think again because this has happened to millions in 2016. While the idea of a digital nation sounds convenient and exciting, there’s a flipside to it too. Read on to know more about some of the biggest data breaches that shook the world up in 2016.
1 billion Yahoo accounts breached:
Back in September 2014, Yahoo had witnessed a data breach in which over 500 million accounts were compromised. Earlier this December, Yahoo CISO Bob Lord confirmed data breach of over 1 billion accounts. It is believed that information was potentially stolen by using encrypted & unencrypted security questions & answers. This information includes names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, passwords. The system that was affected did not have payment card or banking information stored. While the search giant believes that the incident is not related to breach in 2014, it is notifying all its potentially affected customers.
US elections influenced by Russians:
One of the biggest events this year was the US elections. While the world reacted with mixed emotions about Donald Trump’s victory, the Central Intelligence Agency submitted a report alleging Russian interference in the polls. The report includes identification of individuals with connections to the Russian government. These individuals are believed to have provided thousands of hacked emails to WikiLeaks from the Democratic National Committee and others, including Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman.
167 million LinkedIn accounts hacked:
In 2012, 6.5 million encrypted passwords were stolen from LinkedIn and posted onto a Russian crime forum. Earlier this year, a Russian hacker ‘Peace’ sold 167 million email and password combinations on a dark web marketplace. About one million credentials were received by Motherboard from a paid search engine for hacked data, Leaked Source. 167 leaked login credentials seem to have been acquired by Leaked Source.
3.2 billion debit cards in India compromised:
Data infringement also affected India. Personal Identification Numbers of over 32 lakh debit cards were hacked in what’s emerging as one of the biggest ever breaches of financial data in India. Among the worst hit banks were SBI, HDFC Bank, ICICI, YES Bank and Axis. Most of the cards affected were from Visa and Mastercard, while the rest were from RuPay platform. Several victims have reported unauthorised usage from different parts of China.
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