vpnMentor can exclusively reveal thatmore than a quarter of Fortune 500 companies were hackedin the last decade.
This peaked with a record number of hacks in 2018.
Fortune 500 companies experienced 41 hacks in 2018 alone, more than double 2017s record of 20.
Fortune 500 is Fortune magazines annual list of the500 most profitable US corporations.
But do these companies put their profits to good use byinvesting in resilient cybersecurity measures?
This raises another question.
We then divided companies into sectors using the North American Industry Classification System.
This allowed us to seewhich sectors are most commonly targetedby hackers.
Which Companies Were Hacked?
Our analysis of public data revealed that27% of Fortune 500 companies experienced data breachesin the last decade.
Which Industry was Targeted Most?
When we analyzed hacked companies according to sector, even more interesting trends emerged.
Our findings regarding the Finance sector are troubling for two reasons.
Firstly, since these companies are customer-facing,data breaches impact the public as well.
Secondly, by default, these companies are entrusted with safeguarding the publics savings.
If they cant protect their information and customer data against cybercrime, what can the public do?
Additionally,56% of 2018s Fortune 500 companies in the Information sector fell victim to hacksin the last decade.
This covers the hi-tech sector, which makes this finding particularly surprising.
These companies recruit and employ the best talent in data analytics, computer programming, and technological innovation.
That more than half of these firms cannot safeguard their data is truly shocking.
However, our study shows thatseveral Fortune 500 companies allowed private healthcare information to be made public.
Humana suffered a similar breach in 2018.
All applicants were under the age of 65, meaning most were still part of the workforce.
One sinister consequence of leaked healthcare information is that it has the potential to inhibit employment prospects.
Perhaps the most shocking healthcare privacy violation occurred at Aetna in 2018.
Aetnas hack saw them pay out more than $17 million in legal compensation.
Three defendants were accused of defrauding American customers of more than $15 million.
Marriott revealed that hackers had been accessing guest information from its Starwood line since 2014.
Manufacturing
In some instances, the severity of a hack was only discovered during an official investigation.
The term hack is fairly broad and cant be applied to every incident here.
Our stats also include other data breaches.
For example:in 2018, 8,000 sets of personal information were stolen from Coca-Cola.
A former employee of one of Coca-Colas subsidiaries retained an external hard drive filled with member information.
This information was leaked, prompting a legal investigation.
Transportation and Warehousing
As the USAs largest domestic airline, Southwest Airlines has close to 58,000 employees.
Who Do Hacks and Data Breaches Affect?
When Fortune 500 companies are hacked,the victim isnt always obvious.
There are instances where the company itself is the victim.
The scheme generated more than $8 million.
They alerted the company a week before publicly publishing their findings.
Googles publication highlights the double-edged-sword aspect of ethical hacking.
On the one hand,Google acted responsibly: they found and reported a vulnerability to Microsoft.
That responsibility extends to the programs users, prompting Google to publish their findings.
However, when weaknesses become public knowledge,malicious actors have the opportunity to exploit unresolved issues.
While Google was ostensibly helping Microsoft, they could have caused more harm.
This data could allow hackers to act as personnel.
In the wrong hands, it could havepotentially lethal consequences.
He also created software to hack into Teslas manufacturing operating system and used to it tosteal confidential manufacturing media.
This shows that as well as directly impacting companies, this kind of information disclosure createsunfair market advantages.
It could also lead to insider trading.
Its a foolproof form ofidentity theft that could have disastrous consequencesfor users.
This can create relatively localized damage.
Of course, hacks present a much more significant risk to user privacy than exposing their Netflix passwords.
Conclusion
Ordinarily, we advise our readers to take the utmost care when sharing data online.
However, the Fortune 500 hacks detailed above prove that sometimes, user caution isnt always enough.
Mistakes dont only cost customers.
Corporations could pay millions in legal fees, and lose their reputations.
At the time of publishing, three major breaches had occurred in 2019. like, comment on how to improve this article.
