Rising Tide of Cyber Breaches in 2023: Safeguard Your Business with These Preventative Measures

Since the beginning of 2023, businesses have witnessed an alarming surge in cyber breaches. With AI-powered tools, like ChatGPT taking over manual work, companies are at a high risk of losing critical data due to vulnerabilities tied to open-source libraries. According to a recent report by IBM, 83% of companies fell victim to data breaches in 2022. This can have a long-lasting impact on businesses, leaving them to crumble over time. This article will shed light on cyber breaches in 2023, followed by a list of preventative measures to avoid them.

Cyber Breaches in 2023

• A leading pharmaceutical company in the US, PharMerica, recently underwent a data breach where an unidentified party gained unauthorized access to its systems. It resulted in extracting personal information from 5.8 million individuals, including sensitive data such as their names, birth dates, social security numbers, and health insurance details.
• The UK authorities have fined TikTok for violating data protection laws. The penalty was imposed due to breaches in handling user data, highlighting the importance of compliance with data protection regulations.
• A data breach at the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) has reportedly exposed the personal information of 237,000 current and former US government employees. The breach primarily affected systems used for administrative functions, specifically those involved in processing “TRANServe transit benefits” for commuting government employees.
• T-Mobile has disclosed a data breach, impacting approximately 800 customers. It involved scraping customer contact information, social security numbers, ID cards, and other personal data from PIN-protected accounts. This incident marks the company’s second data breach of the year, following a breach in January that affected 37 million customers and data violations in November 2022 and December 2021.
• Chick-fil-A is investigating reports of “suspicious activity” associated with a limited number of customer accounts. The fast-food chain has guided customers on steps to take if they observe any suspicious activity, including removing stored payment methods from their accounts.
• Yum! Brands, the parent company of popular fast food chains Pizza Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell, has notified individuals that their data was compromised in a ransomware attack in January. The company confirmed that stolen information included names, driver’s license details, and ID card information. An investigation is being conducted to determine if the exposed data has been used for fraudulent activities.
• A data leak occurred in ChatGPT’s open-source library due to a bug, resulting in the unintended exposure of customers’ personal information. The leaked data included partial credit card information and the titles of specific chats initiated by users. OpenAI acknowledged the incident and stated that, before taking ChatGPT offline, some users could view another user’s first and last name, the last four digits of a credit card number, payment address, email address, and credit card expiration date. However, it was confirmed that full credit card numbers were never exposed.
• Reddit has officially acknowledged a data breach that occurred on February 5. The breach occurred when an attacker acquired the login credentials of one of its employees. Furthermore, this allowed access to internal documents, dashboards, code, business systems, and information about current and former employees.
• A data breach involving Twitter has emerged, revealing that user data has been traded on the dark web throughout 2022, and this trend is expected to continue in 2023. Recent reports indicate that a collection of email addresses from approximately 200 million Twitter users is currently available for sale on the dark web, with prices as low as $2. Despite the vulnerability that caused this leak being addressed in January 2022, multiple threat actors continue to leak the data.

These recurring breaches highlight ongoing challenges in protecting customer data and raise concerns about data security practices within companies, emphasizing the need for robust cybersecurity measures. While most organizations have taken necessary steps to address the issues and ensure user data security, some are actively investigating the incident and taking measures to mitigate any potential impact. On the other hand, companies like T-Mobile have experienced recurring breaches, raising questions about their ability to protect customer information.

10 Ways to Protect Your Business Against Cyber Breaches

Here are some of the most effective tips and techniques you must incorporate in your organization to prevent cyber breaches:

• Regularly back up your data.
• Use a firewall.
• Enable data encryption.
• Update your software and systems regularly.
• Secure your Wi-Fi networks.
• Create cyber awareness programs.
• Use passphrases instead of passwords.
• Enable multi-factor authentication.
• Perform security audits regularly.
• Limit access to critical data.

Reach Out to Mobiz: Your Go-To Cyber Security Provider

Now that you are aware of various cyber breaches that have taken place in the last five months, you must work on having a proper security plan in place. It can be challenging for businesses to build security solutions that are unique to their companies. To simplify this process, you should contact Mobiz at your earliest! A team of highly skilled experts will guide you through your journey. So, stop worrying about potential risks and threats related to cybersecurity and start implementing the best security practices with Mobiz!