Equifax's data breach exposing 143 million customer records is certainly a massive number, but it only falls more or less in the middle of the pack when it comes to some of the larger breaches experienced over the last several years.
However, the numbers do not tell the entire story. Not all data breaches are created equal with some revealing names, email addresses and login credentials, while others offered the hackers a motherlode of financial information or include Social Security numbers.
“The magnitude of this breach is unprecedented and unlike a breach that involves credit card data, these millions of victims will be at increased risk of fraud for the rest of their lives. You cannot get a replacement social security number because your service provider had inadequate security measures,” said John Gunn, VASCO Data Security's chief marketing officer.
Yahoo - 1 billion
The information included were birth dates, names, hashed passwords, email addresses, telephone numbers and, at least in some cases, security questions and answers, some of which were encrypted. At the time Yahoo said there was no indication that passwords in clear text, payment card data or bank account information were among data stolen in the 2013 breach.
Myspace - 360 million
The data stolen included user login data from a portion of accounts that were created prior to June 11, 2013 on the old Myspace platform
Experian - 200 million
Information including, but not limited to, Social Security numbers, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers and email addresses.
LinkedIn - 162 million
Email information and hashed LinkedIn password combinations.
Equifax - 143 million
Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and driver's license numbers were among the information accessed during the incident
Anthem Healthcare - 80 million
Names, birthdays, medical IDs, social security numbers, street addresses, e-mail addresses and employment information, including income data.
DropBox - 68 million
DropBox user credentials
Tumblr - 65 million
Tumblr user email addresses with salted and hashed passwords from early 2013.
Home Depot - 56 million
Payment card data
Target - 43 million
Credit and debit cards, as well as CVV codes and PIN data
