2020 was a huge year for tech news. The rise of Zoom, the Congress versus Big Tech showdown and the wars of streaming services all topped the headlines. Amid all these major news items however were almost daily stories of data breaches happening across all types of platforms all over the world.
According to Hacked.com, the FBI states that during 2020, cybercrime reports have spiked by as much as 400%. What has led to the huge uptick in cyber attacks? While general trends have shown that cybercrime has exponentially increased in recent years, the most obvious explanation is that increased internet usage across all sectors during the pandemic has generated huge amounts of vulnerabilities that hackers were primed to exploit.
Some of these hacks did indeed make national news. Most notably, the hacking attack on SolarWinds, which disrupted global supply chains and made members of the United States government victims to Russian espionage. The attack targeted local and federal agents and big tech agencies, showing that even the most secure online systems were no match to 2020’s best hackers. Other major hacks disrupted Twitter, Garmin and the huge amounts of American law enforcement data in what became known as Blueleaks.
However, for each of these major hacks, smaller hacks stole the data and information from thousands of Americans. Hacked.com states that over 737 million files were beached in 2020, and in a year where our personal information is so key to protecting our financial and private health security, the real-life results of those breaches could be devastating.
Still, with these breaches becoming increasingly common and less frequently covered in the news, many Americans are unaware if they’ve ever suffered a data breach. Fortunately, tools like this one allow individuals to see how likely it is that their data has been hacked in recent years, though it’s certain that most everyone could do a better job at surveilling tech news sites to catch wind of possible data breaches. Additionally, looking back at repeated data breaches experienced by companies like T-Mobile may offer consumers some insight on which companies to avoid when handing over their data.
Further, as the world remains online in 2020, and many individuals continue to risk vulnerability through remote work, ecommerce and online financial management, updating data security measures at home and at work may be a good idea.
As we look into 2021, all hoping for an end to our public health pandemic, let’s also resolve to find a way to stop the huge rise in data breaches that devastated the last calendar year.
