Top 3 Data Breaches of January 2023

Data breaches aren’t anything new – they’ve been around for ages and they will certainly remain the hot topic of cyber security in the future. Today, we briefly tell you about the biggest data breaches that have occurred in 2023. This blog was initially prepared for BreachDirectory in 2023 and was updated as time moved along.

Preface

Data breaches – who hasn’t heard of them? They’re everywhere – no matter where you look, someone’s getting breached. They happen so rapidly that it’s impossible to cover them all to begin with! You’re reading a blog on a data breach search engine too…

In this blog, we briefly cover the biggest data breaches that happened in or around January 2023.

What’s Gotten Breached in January 2023?

We won‘t waste your time and answer the most burning question straight away – what companies have gotten breached in January? Here‘s a (perhaps non-exhaustive) list:

1. Twitter: it‘s now widely known that in January 2023, Twitter has gotten its data leaked. The leaked data set included email addresses of more than 200 million Twitter users – some sources say that the Twitter data breach impacted approximately 211 million people by hackers exploiting a vulnerability in Twitter‘s API system. The data was then allegedly shared on a criminal forum. Twitter has already communicated with affected users and advised them on their security posture as well as patched vulnerabilities.
2. T-Mobile: another big data breach that happened in January 2023 was related to T-Mobile: in a statement issued to their customers, the company allegedly stated that their systems detected a malicious party accessing a small amount of information of some accounts belonging to T-Mobile. According to the company, the information allegedly accessed and/or stolen by the hacker may have included names, contact details such as phone numbers, SSN details, Dates of Birth, PINs related to T-Mobile, and some other information. The company has already taken steps to remedy the situation.
3. Mailchimp: in January 2023, Mailchimp announced a data breach that hit their systems as well. The data breach didn‘t affect the entire infrastructure of Mailchimp but was rather limited to around 130 accounts access to which was suspended after Mailchimp learned of the incident. Mailchimp has also sent out emails to affected users notifying them of a potential data breach. According to Mailchimp, the partial data breach was possible due to a successful social engineering attack targeting Mailchimp employees and contractors.

What Can We Learn?

So, what can we learn from these three security incidents at Twitter, T-Mobile, and Mailchimp? First off, we have to be aware that social engineering as a tactic to gain access to user accounts isn‘t going away any time soon; if a company like Mailchimp can fall victim to hacker attacks, chances are that your company can too.

Second, no matter what your company size is, its assets are always a target. Look at Twitter/X: they have hundreds of millions of users, yet are still getting breached. Surprising? Shouldn‘t be; the bigger your user base is, the bigger of a target it is for nefarious parties. That‘s why you need to use data breach search engines like the one provided by BreachDirectory: the BreachDirectory data breach search engine and BreachDirectory API will help you keep yourself and your employees safe from threats related to identity theft.

Unfortunately, your most prized possessions – types of data that could facilitate massive damage (dates of birth, Social Security Numbers, etc.) aren‘t always in the most safe hands either. That‘s not to say that companies don‘t put in any effort to secure your data – they almost always do – but you shouldn‘t count on the company saying „well, the company will keep my data safe anyway, right?“ and use weak passwords.

APIs are a target too – BreachDirectory knows this and that‘s why it lets you implement its API into your own system to protect yourself from data breaches targeting API endpoints and other details.

Make use of the API provided by BreachDirectory today: secure yourself, those close to you, and your company, and until next time.

Summary

The biggest data breaches of January 2023 are all pretty big breaches that have occurred because of various reasons: the small breach at Mailchimp occurred because of social engineering, Twitter has left its API endpoints „naked“ and unprotected, and T-Mobile has detected a data breach too.

This just goes to show how crucial it is to keep your data safe at all times: data breach search engines and API appliances like the one provided by BreachDirectory can help you do just that – make use of the BreachDirectory API and search engine, and until next time.