The NEWEST, newest biggest data breach

By now, news about the most recent biggest data breach in history has spread to every corner.  Coined MOAB, or, the Mother of All Breaches, this series of breaches exposed 26 billion records, or 13 terabytes of data.  That’s a lot – for illustration, just one TB can store around 250 HD movies.  Thirteen equals perhaps more than one watches in a lifetime.

The sources for the breach are as myriad in number as they are notable in name.  Tencent, Twitter, Wattpad, LinkedIn and Adobe are just a handful of the major entities swept up in this vast net; Tencent alone accounts for 1.5 billion records stolen.

The culprit is still unknown at this point, whether an individual hacker or perhaps a nation-backed collective.  Motive will also depend on this factor.  Cyber criminals will use any stolen information to try to turn a profit – or, if working for a government, to enhance the state’s intelligence services.  One important trap to avoid is the assumption that any “outdated” data means it will be useless to hackers, and of no concern to its owners.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  If, for instance, passwords on old accounts have been reused time and time again, they become just as vital as if the account had been created yesterday.  Identity theft, targeted cyber attacks and illicit access are some of the results that can follow.

Among the records have been found names, addresses, personally identifiable information (PII) and other sensitive personal data; user credentials that could be exploited for social engineering attacks such as phishing; even financial, social media, professional and government data were compromised.  Stolen credit card and bank account data is extremely concerning to the average person, putting them at risk for identity theft or financial fraud.  All together, such a vast horde of data can easily enact various types of cyber crime or build thorough personal profiles of those whose information was taken.

Organizations dealing with any type of personal data need to expect that sooner or later, they, too will be caught up in an incident like this – if MOAB hasn’t hit them already.  Flexibility and proactive measures are key in establishing a strong data security structure.  NetLib Security’s Encryptionizer solution stands ready as a key component for this structure.  Requiring no additional programming or administrative overhead, Encryptionizer protects your valuable stored data with no hit to performance.  Cyber danger lurks around every corner, and if even giants like LinkedIn and Twitter aren’t immune, there is no excuse to leave sensitive data vulnerable to theft.