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There are various reasons why we might call a hack expensive.
It might be that information was hacked which led to money being stolen, either from a company
or from people whose financial details were taken.
Sometimes a hack just causes so much damage that it might be expensive because of its
destructiveness, not what the hackers actually stole.
And then a company or organization might lose money from legal cases due to it having lax
security that let the hackers inside in the first place.
Because of all the ways hacks may have cost people, companies and organizations money,
it’s not easy to give an exact number in terms of expense.
But the media has published ballpark figures.
Let’s have a look at some of those figures, in this episode of the Infographics Show,
Most Expensive Hacks in The History of the Internet.
10.
Anthem Anthem Insurance was hacked in 2015 and it’s
said in all it cost the company about $115 million.
About 79 million Americans had their names, addresses and social security numbers stolen
along with other information.
This information was very valuable as it could be used to create new identities.
The company had to either pay out cash to those affected or at least monitor their credit
for a period of two years.
At the time lawyers said it was the “largest settlement ever for a data breach.”
The malware used, called Sakula, was used in other hacks for which Chinese nationals
were blamed.
This was indeed a massive hack, but it pales in comparison to some of the others hacks
you are about to hear about.
9.
Heartland Payment Systems In 2008, Heartland Payment Systems, since
acquired by Global Payments, had its servers infected with malware.
That malware led to 100 million credit cards and their information being stolen.
With that information, we are told, the thieves could fabricate new cards.
It’s said this cost the company about $140 million.
In 2010, a man called Albert Gonzalez was sentenced to 20 years for that hack and other
hacks.
It’s said he had so much cash he spent $75,000 on his birthday bash and counted his money
using a machine.
We guess hacking payed, but not for long.
When he was arrested the cops found $1.6 million in cash on his properties.
He didn’t work alone, though, and his team was also imprisoned but for shorter sentences.
8.
TJ Maxx American department store chain TJ Maxx was
hacked in 2007 but unbelievably the hacking went undetected for a period of 18 months.
In that time the information from around 45.7 million credit and debit cards of customers
was taken.
The store first reported that the cost of the hack was $118 million, but that later
went up to $162 million.
It was huge at the time, with security experts saying that it “will probably serve as a
case study for computer security and business students for years to come.”
Some time after it was revealed that the hackers had gotten into the system by breaching weak
wi-fi security.
7.
Target The U.S.’s Target department store chain
was hacked in 2013 and it’s said it cost the retailer around $162 million (some sources
say even more).
In 2018, The Washington Post wrote that a Latvian man had been arrested and sentenced
to 14 years in prison for the hack.
This man, along with others, reportedly stole credit card information from about 40 million
Target shoppers.
According to other sources the hackers collected this information and then sold it on the darknet.
6.
Sony PlayStation In 2011, hackers found their way into Sony
Playstation’s digital data room.
Some reports say that information was stolen from around 100 million users, although a
Guardian report at the time said 77 million.
That information consisted of people’s names, addresses, email addresses, logins, passwords,
birthdates and even security questions.
As Playstation users give credit card details to pay for things, these were also taken by
the hackers.
Sony then put out a statement, “To protect against possible identity theft or other financial
loss, we encourage you to remain vigilant to review your account statements and to monitor
your credit or similar types of reports.”
Forbes later wrote that the hack set Sony back a whopping $170 million.
Forbes also wrote that Sony didn’t say how it had lost that amount, as it wasn’t exactly
stolen.
It seems the losses came from losing customers and fixing security.
5.
Hannaford Bros When supermarket chain Hannaford Bros was
hacked in 2007 it’s said millions of American credit and debit card numbers were stolen.
Banks in the U.S. then had to do a lot of work and close accounts and reissue cards.
It’s said this cost the company around $252 Million.
Even though about 4.2 million cards were breached, only around 1,800 cases of fraud were reported.
Reports said charges against these stolen numbers were showing up as far and wide as
Mexico and Bulgaria.
It seems malware got into the company servers, and at the time Hannaford Bros had no idea
how it got there.
4.
Petya/NotPetya This hack infected computers of shipping companies,
law firms, ad agencies and more.
It’s said once the malware was on a machine it would infect others, completely destroying
records of companies.
Many of these infections happened in Ukraine, but global companies such as FedX, Maersk
and pharmaceutical firm Merck, were victims.
FedX said the hack cost it around $300 million, while Maersk was said to lose a similar amount.
Many smaller companies lost smaller amounts.
What was the point in all this?
It was ransomware, so the companies were asked to pay their way out of the attack.
Security experts said these companies could have prevented the attack by updating Microsoft
security and also patching software.
3.
Equifax In 2018, Reuters called this 2017 hack the
costliest corporate hack in history.
Like with most other hacks, the exact amount lost is not known.
Reuters reports that the number was about $439 million.
Cnet wrote that 147.7 million Americans had their information exposed during this hack.
This included customers names, social security numbers, addresses and birthdates.
Equifax said it would build a stronger system of security and become a stronger company
in general, and it seems lucky so far in that it hasn’t faced any fines.
2.
Epsilon When this happened in 2011 it was called the
hack of the century and also the “largest name and email address breach in the history
of the Internet.”
The company, which did marketing for over 2,500 firms, had millions of emails taken
from its database.
It was reported that in total the company lost around $4 billion in all due to lost
business, fines, audits, and legal cases, while the theft itself was said to make the
hackers a mere $2 million.
1.
WannaCry It’s said that these ransomware hackers
only received about $140,000 in bitcoin from their mission, but we must remember that they
infected around 200,000 computers in around 150 countries.
This caused untold mayhem in 2017, and while reports suggest the cost could have been in
the millions, a security expert talking to CBS news said the cost was more like $4 billion.
We may never know as counting up these costs is problematic given the extent of the attack.
We are told the worst hit nations were Russia, Ukraine, India and Taiwan, with some very
big companies and organizations being a victim.
We all likely remember how this hack affected the British National Health Service.
Who was behind it?
Word on the street is North Korea, though the country has said blaming them is just
more western propaganda.
Having any of your online accounts or credit cards hacked can be seriously expensive, and
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From what we can see, these were the biggest hacks ever in terms of what was lost.
But we may have missed something and you might know what we missed.
If you can add to the list tell us in the comments.
Also, be sure to check out our other show 10 most dangerous hackers of all time.
Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t forget to like share and subscribe.
See you next time.