FlowingData has published an excellent graphic timeline representation of the 10 largest data breaches since 2000.

The 10 largest breaches are, ordered by year:

  1. March 6, 2003 – Data Processors International. 5 million.
  2. June 24, 2004 – America Online. 30 million.
  3. June 6, 2005 – Citigroup. 30 million.
  4. June 19, 2005 – Visa, Mastercard, American Express. 40 million.
  5. May 22, 2006 – US Department of Veterans Affairs. 28.5 million.
  6. January 17, 2007 – TJC Companies. 94 million.
  7. March 23, 2007 – Dai Nippon Printing Company. 8.6 million.
  8. July 3, 2007 – Fidelity National Information Services. 8.5 million.
  9. September 14, 2007 – TD Ameritrade. 6.3 million.
  10. November 20, 2007 – HM Revenue and Customs. 25 million.

Posted in the timeline as they are, it is interesting to note that the number of large data breaches became more frequent with time. Other data from 2007 indicated that the number of records breached per incident had gone up versus in 2006 or years past. The figures above are a staggering, and frightening, example of the state of data security today.

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