Biggest Data Breaches in 2013

Headlines every other day in 2013 were covered with stories of how hackers managed to steal millions of worth of data and get away with it uncaught. Despite increased awareness and higher spending on IT security in 2013, attackers found loopholes to penetrate into systems and wreak havoc. CEH Training is one of the defense practices which is a must for enterprises nowadays to get equipped in. Every organization must have one dedicated Certified Ethical Hacker,  if not a security team, to ensure that their confidential data is safe from all angles. Here we highlight some of the biggest data breaches in 2013 that taught us all some important lessons:

Adobe

Adobe had the shock of its life when approximately 3 million personal records of their users, and nearly 150 million passwords including source code of Adobe software products was stolen. This data breach showed the world how vast the scope of a data breach can be and what ramifications an organization has to endure if their security systems are not in perfect order.

Twitter

Another big shot faced the heat when it reported unusual access patterns of some users. An investigation carried out revealed that 250,000 usernames, passwords and emails were at potential risk. Passwords were then reset for these accounts and users were notified. From this incident, Twitter learnt the lesson and started using two-factor authentication to tighten security.  

NSA

Probably the most talked about breach of not only 2013 but in the history of IT, is one of the U.S. National Security Agency. It caused such an uproar and outrage in general public that it proved to be catastrophic for the agency. Edward Snowden was the man behind the operation which uncovered U.S. government's spying and monitoring activities of its citizens.

Organizations must learn from these mistakes to avoid similar situations in future.  Prevention is the best cure when it comes to cyber attacks. Koenig Solutions provides a wide range of courses on this subject to help professionals always stay a step ahead of malicious cyber intruders.