Cyber security breaches continue to cloud the success of big businesses and leave customers feeling skeptical

The interactive infographic reveals detailed information on the major cyber security breaches to date. The graphic allows the reader to view the breaches in both chronological order and the intensity of the breaching. We are able to easily recognize that in 2007, TK/TJ-Maxx has the record for the biggest retail breach up to date with 94,000,000 records stolen. According to the data presented in the infographic, this particular breach occurred in Minnesota when hackers hacked the store wifi and the credit card information of many was compromised. The year 2009 was the year of two major breaches- one involving the US military and the other Heartland. The US military was compromised when information containing the personal information of about 76,000,000 veterans was left unencrypted and vulnerable for attack. Heartland, an independent processor, holds the tittle for the largest credit card scam in history with 130,000,000 records compromised. In order to settle these claims, Heartland was forced to pay off a large sum of money to major credit card companies such as American Express and MasterCard.
Between the years 2010 and 2010, there were a greater number of small breaches that affected less than 35,000,000 records with the exception of Sony. The Sony breach of 2010 affected 76,000,000 user accounts. The following year was marked by two major breaches. Personal records containing sensitive information of about 200,000,000 people from a firm now known as Experian were sold to a Vietnamese theft service. The other breach revolved around major retail chains, banks, and processing companies. Here, more than 160,000,000 records were compromised. Recently, we have the case of Target where thanks to software that was installed on the machines customers use to scan their card 70,000,000 records were retrieved.
The infographic allows readers to truly investigate the area of breaches. It not only shows how many records were compromised but also gives more insight as to what occurred and provides a link to a reputable source where one can learn more about the breach. It was shocking to see how the number of breaches increased throughout the 9-year period and triggered me to think if there are many other cyber security threats that we may not know of yet.