From major banks to car dealerships, 2024 was a record year for data breaches. Yes, I mean that in the worst possible way. I would be shocked if there was an American left at this point who wasn’t affected. Here are some companies that may have had your data exposed.

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Violation of national data protection: 2.9 billion people affected

It’s hard to imagine anything worse than a hacker attacking a background check company whose sole job is to dig up and collect non-public data. A lawsuit claims that National Public Data’s negligence exposed 2.9 billion people. The details include social security numbers, full names and addresses. The hacker group ASDoD has put the database containing the stolen information up for sale for $3.5 million. There’s no word yet of a ransom payment.

2.7 billion records leaked in massive data theft in the US

Through a process called scraping, NPD collects and stores personal information from “nonpublic sources” to conduct background checks. In other words, the company collects information that has not been voluntarily (or knowingly) shared.

Depending on what happens in court, the NPD could be required to delete the personal data of the persons concerned and to encrypt all data collected in the future.

Ascension ransomware attack: Up to 140 hospitals

In May, an employee at one of the country’s largest healthcare systems accidentally downloaded malware, sparking an avalanche of cyberattacks.

Ascension operates 140 hospitals in 19 states and Washington, D.C. On May 8, they discovered unusual activity on their network. The outage quickly became so bad that Ascension had to close emergency rooms and divert patients.

Hackers have gotten their hands on 7 of Ascension’s 25,000 servers. Who was affected is still under investigation. Ascension recently stated that about 500 people were affected, but I’m willing to bet the final number will be much higher.

Global CDK attack: 15,000 car dealerships

One of the largest auto dealership software companies was hit twice in June. CDK, used by 15,000 auto dealerships for payroll and finance tasks, had its systems brought down after two consecutive cyberattacks on June 18 and 19. The ransom payment was rumored to be in the tens of thousands of dollars. Million of dollars.

The shutdown significantly impacted dealer operations and sales. A Lexus dealer in New Jersey reported a 50% drop in new car sales in June.

Change Healthcare Attacks

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Change Healthcare, a technology company owned by UnitedHealth, is used by thousands of pharmacies, hospitals and healthcare facilities to receive payments and process claims.

An attack discovered in late February caused massive disruptions across the U.S. healthcare system for weeks. UnitedHealth paid the Russian cybercriminal group BlackCat a $22 million ransom to prevent them from sharing the stolen data.

Then another The RansomHub gang claimed it also stole data. In April, UnitedHealth said a “significant amount” of Americans’ data had been exposed. It is estimated that up to a third of all Americans were affected. This includes sensitive medical data, including test results, diagnoses and images.

AT&T data leak: 73 million customers

In March, AT&T announced that hackers had stolen data from “almost all” current and former customers. The data goes back to 2019 and includes some Really personal information, including social security numbers. They reportedly paid hackers a $370,000 ransom to delete the information.

Honorable Mention

• Advance Auto Parts (July): Personal data of over 2.3 million people was stolen.
• Roku (April): By using credential stuffing, or logins leaked in other security breaches, hackers accessed around 591,000 accounts, but no financial information was obtained.
• Truist Bank (June): The hacker group Sp1d3r stole information about 65,000 employees and offered it for sale online.
• Tile (June): Life360, the company behind the Tile tracker devices, reported a breach that included names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and device identification numbers.
• Ticketmaster (June): This incident affected 560 million customers; the data included names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, order history and partial payment information.
• Dropbox (May): Attackers accessed Dropbox Sign’s development environment and compromised customer information.
• TeamViewer (July): Employee directory data, including names and encrypted passwords, was exposed.

Locked

You can’t stop a hacker from breaking into a large company, but you may Protect yourself from the consequences.

How to get cheap stuff (to keep or resell)

Double-check all healthcare communications. If you receive an Explanation of Benefits (EOB) or a bill for services you did not receive, contact your doctor and insurance company immediately. This likely means someone is using your services for their own health care.

Be careful with email inquiries. Be skeptical of anything that seems super urgent. It’s OK to slow down for safety’s sake. My rule of thumb: If it’s a weird written request, like a text or email, I’ll call.

Be wary of “old friends” who appear out of nowhere. It could be a hacker who happens to have some (stolen) information. Take the time to confirm that this is indeed the culprit.

Create a list of disclosed data. Keep this information digitally or on a post-it. Be suspicious if someone refers to it in an email or phone call. Let’s say the company you used to finance your car was hacked. If you get a call out of the blue saying there’s a big problem with your credit, alarm bells should be ringing.

Update your PIN and banking credentials. Even if they weren’t directly involved in the data theft, hackers can still use your personal information to access it. Pay attention to your bank and credit card statements for anything unusual. Also, set up banking alerts on your phone.

Freeze your credit. Here’s how to prevent scammers from opening a credit card or loan in your name. As with setting up a fraud alert, you’ll need to contact each of the three credit bureaus.

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