Cyber Breach Timeline
Yahoo Breaches
2013 & 2014~3 billion accounts exposed; names, emails, birthdates, security questions, hashed passwords.
Target Breach
2013~40 million credit/debit cards plus 70+ million customer records exposed; major retail POS compromise.
Adobe Breach
2013153 million user records including IDs and source code; prompted password resets and code-security concerns.
Sony PlayStation Network (PSN)
2011~77 million accounts compromised; service-wide outage and major data breach.
LinkedIn Breach
2012 (and later re-aggregations)Tens to hundreds of millions of user records/passwords exposed and reused in subsequent attacks.
Dropbox Breach
2012 / 2016 revelationsTens of millions of accounts implicated due to password reuse across services.
Adult FriendFinder / FriendFinder Network
2016 (and earlier)Hundreds of millions of user accounts exposed; sensitive personal info compromised.
Collection #1 & Related Dumps
2019 onwardBillions of credentials aggregated from thousands of breaches; showed risks of old breaches combined.
Marriott / Starwood Breach
2014–2018 (discovered 2018)~500 million guests affected; names, passport numbers, reservation details.
Equifax Breach
2017~147 million US consumers; personal data including SSNs, birthdates; major identity theft risk.
Cambridge Analytica / Facebook Data Misuse
2014–2018 disclosure~87 million Facebook profiles harvested and used for political profiling; major data misuse impact.
Capital One Breach
2019~100 million US and 6 million Canadian accounts exposed; personal and credit application data leaked.
Adobe Source Code & TJX Leaks
2000s / 2007Retail and developer data theft shaped PCI standards and breach response practices.
Microsoft Exchange / Hafnium Exploits
2021Mass exploitation of Exchange servers enabling data theft, web shells, and follow-on intrusions worldwide.
Colonial Pipeline Ransomware
2021Operational shutdown of critical fuel pipeline due to ransomware; major economic and policy consequences.
Wikipedia “16 billion passwords” Aggregated Leak
2025Enormous aggregation of credentials affecting users of multiple major services; significant due to scale and fresh credentials.
Sony PlayStation Network (Legacy)
2011High-profile service-wide compromise; ~77 million accounts affected.
MySpace / Tumblr / Legacy Social Platforms
Various yearsHundreds of millions of legacy accounts exposed; illustrates risks to older platforms.
Anthem Health Insurer Breach
2015~78.8 million people affected; names, SSNs, medical IDs; major healthcare sector breach.
Adobe & TJX Combined Leaks
Earlier 2000s / 2007Major retail and developer data thefts that shaped PCI standards and breach response practices.