It’s astonishing how frequently revelations of a data breach have hit the news. But these events are so frequent they may get less media coverage than they warrant. That can hurt consumers—because if you’re not aware of breaches, you won’t know that your data has been compromised and take steps to protect yourself from identity theft. Therefore, it’s worth checking out this report on the biggest breaches revealed in 2022—and some of the biggest from 2023 so far.
US Department of Education
In March 2022, a hack meant 820,000 students in New York had their information stolen. The data theft included demographics, academic information, and economic profiles.
Apple and Meta
Though it wasn’t revealed until 2022, in 2021, Apple and Meta surrendered some customers’ data to law enforcement officials. But it turned out the data recipients weren’t truly law enforcement but hackers who had accessed police systems.
Cash App
In April 2022, the cash delivery app reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had been breached in 2021, with 8.2 million customers’ data impacted.
SuperVPN, GeckoVPN, and ChatVPN
Theoretically, VPNs offer users a more secure method of using the internet. But that wasn’t the case for the 21 million customers of SuperVPN, GeckoVPN, and ChatVPN; a breach of those companies resulted in their customers’ names, billing details, emails, and passwords being sold on the dark web.
Shields Health Group
A March 2022 breach of Shields Health Group, a Massachusetts medical insurance provider, exposed 2,000,000 people’s data—Social Security numbers, home addresses, medical information, etc. A class action lawsuit has now been filed.
Uber
While the company didn’t reveal it until 2022, Uber has hacked in 2016. The hackers obtained the data of an estimated 57 million of their rideshare customers. But instead of revealing the hack, the company’s data officer paid the hackers $100,000, hoping to keep it quiet. It didn’t work. And federal prosecutors have subsequently convicted the official for obstruction of justice and other charges.
Neopets
After the user information for 69 million users of the Neopet game was sold, it wasn’t all fun and games. The compromised data included names, addresses, and birth dates.
If you have been a victim of a data breach, contact an attorney who specializes in helping consumers fix their credit reports, debt defense, and debt collection harassment. Attorneys can help you repair your record. And they’ll help you receive compensation for the damage you’ve suffered due to reporting mistakes. Call today.