Biggest Cloud Storage Security Breaches !

So what do the term Cloud Storage refers to, it means that it is a cloud computing model stores your data on the internet which is done through a cloud computing service provider like AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, IBM Bluemix, etc. The service provider will operate and manage the data storage as a service. The main benefit of cloud storage is that you don't have to buy physical data storage devices to store your data, although you have to pay the charge for cloud storage which is comparatively less than buying a physical storage devices such as SD Card, SSD, Pen drives, etc. 

Now almost everyone uses the cloud storage services to store their data. Because it is easily accessible and we do not have to carry our hard drives everywhere we go. We can access our data with just some clicks. But with so many advantages, there comes the disadvantages. It is very easy and efficient to store the data on Cloud  Computing Services but it has some issues. As we know that anything which is on the internet can be hacked. So somewhere we have to compromise with our security if we use the Cloud Storage Services. I agree that the data leaks doesn't takes place often but there is a possibility that it can be hacked. 

I will tell you about top 5 incidents of Cloud Storage Security Breaches so that you will be able to know about the security compromises of the cloud storage. 

1. LinkedIn 

In 2021, the world's best job seeking platform had been affected by a data breach. Over 700 Million users data was leaked during this data breach even though LinkedIn has officially said that no sensitive and private data was leaked. They also added that the data which was breached was the data which was publicly available. It is also known that the data which was leaked in this breach was posted on a forum of dark web in the month of June 2021. LinkedIn refused the blame for this data breach although this has violated the terms and services of LinkedIn. The data which was leaked was email addresses, phone numbers, genders, social media details, geological locations, etc. This data is enough for a smart hacker to conduct scams or even some hacking attacks on the users whose data has been leaked.

 

2. Alibaba

Alibaba is known for its e-commerce and retails services in the world but once this e-commerce giant has faced a data leak. In the year 2019 an attack was made on Alibaba's shopping website Taobao in which more than 1.1 billion users data was compromised. The leaked data included the user IDs, phone numbers, customer reviews and comments, etc. This attack was conducted by a Chinese software developer as he searched thoroughly the site and secretly scraped the data until the Alibaba knew what was exactly happening. Hacker was failed to get the passwords and other sensitive data, but the damage was severe enough that Alibaba filed a police complaint against the hacker. As this incident took place in China, it was never made public because of which it didn't get some worldwide coverage.

3. Facebook 

We all know how much Facebook care about their users privacy and security. Facebook was affected by a data breach in which user's account names, phone numbers, Facebook ID's, etc. were leaked. This incident was happened in the year 2019, but it was reported to the media and news in the year 2021. Facebook refused the blame for data breach and said that they found this issue and fixed it immediately. But as the sensitive information like phone numbers were leaked, Mark Zuckerberg will have to personally answer the Federal Regulators for the settlement of the privacy case with FTC (Federal Trade Commission) which includes a penalty of $5 billion which should be paid by the Facebook. 

4. Yahoo 

In 2013, Over 3 billion accounts were affected by a data breach. This breach is considered as one of the biggest and most devastating data breach. Yahoo didn't even made it public till 2016 and at that time they said that the number of users affected was only 1 billion but later it came to know that it was 3 billion. The hacker started all this data breach by sending a spear-phishing email to a Yahoo employee in 2014, and with just one click of that employee on that email and all the data was leaked. In March 2017, FBI arrested 4 people for this attack, 2 of which were Russian Spies. 

5. Adult Friend Finder 

Adult Friend Finder was a social networking service which was specially made for adults. It was hacked in October 2016, when more than 412 million users accounts were affected from multiple sites, which made it the biggest data breach of that year. The data which was hacked included names, email addresses and even passwords. With this much of information the hacker could have done huge damage and could have created problems for the users. The hack was made successful by using a local file exclusion exploit, which gave the hackers access to all networking sites. 

Safety Measures For Us 

Especially as a users there are some safety measures that we can take. Like we should never upload our personal images like our family photos on cloud storage servers. We should take their backup safely in Physical Storage devices. Another tip is to check frequently what type of data are we uploading on the cloud. Cloud Storages are best for taking backup of our huge office files, professional video edits, photo edits, etc. but never use them for private photos or videos, and if you are using then be careful because we can't know and we cannot predict when the cloud storage servers can be hacked and our data can be leaked.