Data security breaches can range from the exposure of a few email addresses to millions of Social Security numbers, sometimes costing enterprises billions of dollars in damage.
CIO magazine recently worked with several security professionals to assemble an extensive list of the most damaging data breaches of the 21st century. The mentioned incidents involved healthcare organizations, payment services companies, major retailers and security firms, among others.
According to the report, the Heartland Payment Systems breach of March 2008 is the most damaging data loss incident of the past 11 years. Hackers implanted spyware on Heartland's data networks through SQL injection, leaving 134 million credit card numbers exposed.
The source also named several recent data security mishaps in its report, including the RSA Security breach of last year, which involved the loss of about 40 million employee records.
"RSA didn't help the matter by initially being vague about both the attack vector, and the data that was stolen," security expert John Linkous told CIO.
Information management and security have become vital tasks for IT departments, as data sets are expanding and threats are more sophisticated than ever before. Some enterprises have adopted advanced security information and event management systems, allowing them to efficiently collect and analyze data in an integrated environment.
