2017's biggest hacks, leaks, and data breaches so far…

Historical hacks come back to haunt, and fresh breaches bite our behinds

If you thought last year's breach of over three billion records (and then some) was bad, this year has seen its fair share of headaches.
From hacks, attacks, ransoms, and even extortion attempts, we're only part way through the year and already we've collectively seen millions of records stolen and a wealth of classified hacking tools leaked (that led to its own set of issues).
There's a lot to take in. Let's take a look back at some of the biggest -- and most dangerous -- hacks and leaks of the year so far.
Bell Canada ignores hacker's threat to release 1.9 million customer records Bell Canada, Canada's largest teleco, was hacked in May. The company declined to pay the hacker to stop the release of the 1.9 million customer records stolen. A portion of the data was subsequently leaked online.

Education platform Edmodo breach exposes 77 million accounts The education platform was attacked in May by a hacker who put the database for sale on the dark web. According to Vice's Motherboard, which verified the breach, the data includes usernames, email addresses, and hashed passwords.

Mac video encoder HandBrake was infected with malware Thousands had a 50-50 chance of being infected with a remote access trojan in early May after HandBrake, the video encoder for Macs, was infected with malware. Those infected were at risk from thieves stealing login credentials from OS X Keychain.

A fraction of users hit by HipChat breach HipChat, the workplace chat platform, was breached by hackers in April, following an attack on one of its cloud apps. HipChat wouldn't say how many users were directly affected, only that there was evidence that messages and content in rooms may have been accessed for less than 0.05 percent of all users.

Payday lender Wonga breached, affecting 270,000 accounts Wonga, the payday loans company, confirmed a breach in April, affecting more than one-quarter of a million lenders. The breach came just a couple of months after a hacker stole stole £2.5 million from 9,000 online customers at Tesco Bank.

WannaCry ransomware plagues thousands in massive global cyberattack Thought to the be the biggest ransomware attack of its kind, the WannaCry ransomware was only successful thanks to the NSA losing control of its key hacking tools. That led the hackers to install backdoors that channeled the ransomware on millions of computers. Within days, Congress introduced a bill that would prevent the government from stockpiling cyberweapons.

ZDNET  Published: June 7, 2017

 ZDNET  2017  http://www.zdnet.com/pictures/biggest-hacks-leaks-and-data-breaches-2017/