eWeek has put together a slideshow of the “Worst Data Breaches Ever.” The data breaches were defined as “worst” not just on the basis of numbers of records or people affected, but also on the basis of the responsiveness of those organizations to notify the bodies affected, the extenuating details of the data breach, and the organization’s responsiveness to addressing the issues that caused the breach.

Included are the following data breaches, including the number of people affected and the method of data exposure:

1. Monster.com - 1.3 million (phishing)
2. Fidelity National Information Services - 2.3 million (internal theft)
3. SAIC - 800,000 (unencrypted data sent over Internet)
4. State of Ohio - every worker (storage device stolen from vehicle)
5. LA County Child Support Services - 130,500 (laptops stolen)
6. TJX - 45.6 million (hacker)
7. University of California - 800,000 (hacker)
8. Miami Office of the U.S. Department of Transportation - 133,000 (laptop theft)
9. AOL - 600,000 (accidental posting online)
10. Naval Safety Center - 28,000 (spreadsheets posted online)
11. Wells Fargo - not available (laptop theft)
12. Department of Veterans Affairs - 26.5 million (data device stolen out of office)
13. Department of Agriculture - 26,000 (hackers)
14. Boston Globe - 240,000 (accidental printing of information)
15. H&R Block - unknown (printed onto mailing labels)
16. ChoicePoint - 145,000 (hackers)
17. LexisNexis - 300,000 (hackers)
18. Ameritrade - 200,000 (computer backup tape lost offsite)

From the examples given in this slideshow, hackers and data devices being lost or stolen were the primary causes of data breach.

Tags: data breaches, data loss, identity theft, business security, it security