Click to view 10 Biggest Data Hacks Infographic

In the past 15 years, the number, size and cost of data breaches has risen exponentially with the growth of the internet and e-commerce. It’s happened to some of the biggest and best companies in high-tech, retail and many other industries. Today, we review 17 of the biggest and most infamous payments data breaches from the present and recent past.

Each of our data breach examples is accompanied by a link to a story that captured the incident and the details at the time the data hack happened. It makes for compelling reading and a reminder of the critical need for data security and constant monitoring.

As a bonus, we’ve also prepared a list of the largest personal data/email breaches on record following this payments data breach list. The scale of these data security breaches is shocking when you see them all in one list.

List of 17 Biggest Payments Data Breaches Ever

Court Ventures (now owned by Experian) 2011 – 200 million accounts breached; estimated cost unknown to date. At Experian, Security Attrition Amid Acquisitions

NASDAQ 2006-2012 – 161 million credit and debit card numbers stolen; estimated cost to companies affected was $300 million “NASDAQ is owned.” Five men charged in largest financial hack ever

eBay 2014 – 145 million accounts compromised; estimated cost included $200 million in class-action lawsuits alone. Cyber Thieves Took Data On 145 Million eBay Customers By Hacking 3 Corporate Employees

Equifax 2017 – 143 million accounts breached; estimated cost to be determined.  The Equifax Hack Has the Hallmarks of State-Sponsored Pros

Target 2013/2014 – 30 million in 2013 and 70-110 million accounts in 2014 impacted; estimated to cost Target up to $162 million. Target’s Data Breach Gets Worse: 70 Million Customers Had Info Stolen, Including Names, Emails And Phones

Heartland Payment Systems 2008/2009 – 108 million debit and credit cards affected; estimated cost included $110 million in payments to Visa and MasterCard by Heartland. Heartland Payment Systems Suffers Data Breach

Sony 2011 – 100 million accounts breached; estimated cost includes 65 class-action lawsuits totaling between $171 million and $1.5 billion. Sony Promises All PlayStation Services Will Return This Week (Again)

TJX/TJ Maxx 2003/2004 – 94 million accounts hacked; estimated cost to the company was $256 million. TJ Maxx data theft largest ever

JP Morgan Chase 2014 – 83 million personal and small business accounts hacked.
JP Morgan Chase reveals massive data breach affecting 76m households

Home Depot 2014 – 56 million customers’ personal data compromised the company said it cost them an estimated $33 million. Home Depot left customers’ unprotected personal data online

Cardsystems Solutions 2005 – 40 million credit card accounts stolen.  CardSystems Exposes 40 Million Identities

RSA Security 2011 – 40 million security tokens affected; estimated cost of $66 million in monitoring. Cyber attack on RSA cost EMC $66 million

Adobe 2013 – 38 million credit card accounts hacked; estimated cost $1.1 million in legal fees and unknown settlements to individuals. Adobe breach impacted at least 30 million users

Zappos 2012 – 24 million customers’ personal data, last four digits of credit cards and passwords stolen; estimated cost $406,000. Zappos hacked, 24 million accounts accessed

Ashley Madison 2015 – 37 million customers financial records and data stolen; $11.2 million paid in settlements so far. Ashley Madison will pay $11.2 million to data breach victims

Staples 2014 – 1.16 million customers financial records hacked; estimated cost $148 million. Staples Breach Impacts 1.1 Million, Adds To Ongoing Retail Lapses

Global Payments 2012 – 1.5 million customer credit card accounts compromised; estimated cost $94 million. Global Payments Breach Tab: $94 Million 

Our list was drawn from several sources including:

 15 Biggest email and personal data breaches

Following is a brief list of the 15 biggest email and personal data breaches on record and drawn from the World’s Biggest Data Breaches interactive infographic.

River City Media 2017 – 1.37 billion email accounts at this spam operator were hacked.

Yahoo 2013/2014 – 1 billion email accounts impacted in 2014; 500 million in 2013.

Spambot 2016 – spambot leaks 711 million email accounts.

Friend Finder Network 2016 – 412 million email accounts hacked.

MySpace 2013 – 360 million accounts breached.

Epsilon 2015 – 60-230 million email accounts hit.

US voter database 2015 – 191 million accounts exposed.

LinkedIn 2012 – 112 million accounts hacked.

AOL 2004 – 92 million user accounts stolen.

DailyMotion 2017 – 85.2 million video streaming service customer email accounts taken.

Anthem 2015 – 80 million health customer accounts breached.

Dropbox 2011 – 68.7 million accounts compromised.

Tumblr 2013 – 65 million accounts impacted.

Last.fm 2012 – 43.5 million accounts breached.

Sony Pictures 2014 – 35 million accounts hacked.

News You Can Use

With the huge cost of security and the crushing financial impact of a major data breach, it pays to be prepared and constantly monitoring your security levels. Check out our other posts on e-commerce security and online fraud here. Don’t forget to sign up at the top of this page to receive weekday morning news you can use.