Visualization of the World’s Biggest Data Breaches Put in a Clever Infographic

Data breaches have been on a global scale for many years causing the loss of important data and potentially millions of dollars at the expense of various companies.

The surmounting effects of data breaches are sometimes difficult for us to understand or visualize. To better help everyone understand the reach of and vastness of the world's biggest data breaches, the company 'Information is Beautiful' has released an exclusive visualization of the biggest data breaches in the world in an infographic.

Figure 1 - World's Biggest Data Breaches Infographic - Source: Information is Beautiful

The infographic shown in Figure 1 above is a representation of the world's largest data breaches and how the directly compare to many well-known companies and websites. Many of the entities listed on the infographic you have probably used at one time or another ranging from Evernote, Living Social, Facebook, Blizzard to Yahoo, UbiSoft, Apple, Twitter and others.

We know from our historic research how disturbing and detrimental data breaches can be. When a data breach occurs within an organization that harbors sensitive information, a virtual domino effect occurs where hackers can now access personal information on thousands to millions of victimized people.

At times breaches are a result of accidental publishing of private data or careless handling of security settings within an organization. Either way, when data is breached there is no easy reprieve from the potential damage that will inevitably occur. Hopefully, through the visualization of the world's biggest data breaches in the above infographic will help prompt data centers and companies to better safeguard information.