Tech

How data are HACKED and how you can keep yours SAFE, in one chart

Giuseppe Macri Tech Editor
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Last year, some of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies experienced the largest, most damaging security breaches they had ever known, opening up their private networks to hackers from the U.S. to China — along with the personal, private data of millions nationally and internationally.

Apple, Twitter, Microsoft and Facebook — among numerous others — were the victims of major hacks, some of which exposed the private data of up to 2 million users at one time. Many of those users has their information published publicly online.

And they weren’t the only ones — major media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and Associated Press found out just how insecure their security was — exposing data on anonymous sources and even publishing false news reports online.

The ever-constant leap of digital technological advancement is quickly leaving the traditional methods of online, Internet-based security behind. Many of the mainstream methods employed by web presences use security practices that, in their original form, date back 10 years or more.

The following WhoIsHostingThis chart breaks down some of the biggest hacks of 2013, explaining how hackers got in, what they were after, and how companies took subsequent measures to keep it from happening again.

LOOK: How data are hacked and how you can keep yours safe, in one chart

How data are HACKED and how you can keep yours SAFE, in one chart

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