Data Breaches
A data breach constitutes the unauthorized exposure, disclosure, or loss of personal information. (Wikipedia, n.d.-a)
According to IBM's Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024, the global average cost of a data breach reached an alarming $4.88 million in 2024. (Exclusive Networks, 2025; IBM, 2024)
The Ashley Madison Data Breach
In July 2015 the cheating website Ashley Madison was hacked by the "Impact Team". (WIRED, 2025) The team threatened to release the data of all Ashley Madison users, unless its parent company, Avid Life Media, deleted ashleymadison.com as well as its sister site Established Men. (WIRED, 2025) Following Avid Life Media's failure to comply, the Impact Team released the details of 2500 user accounts. (WIRED, 2025) A month later, after Avid Life Media's continued failure to comply, the Impact Team dumped the details of all 36 million registered users. (WIRED, 2025)
The Ashley Madison data the Impact Team released included usernames, email addresses, and phone numbers, including thousands linked to U.S. government and military accounts. (WIRED, 2025)
The Ashley Madison data breach also revealed that while the company charged users $19 to delete their accounts, earning them around $1.7 million annually, they never actually deleted the accounts, only the profiles. (WIRED, 2025)
The leak also exposed some 1200 user accounts from Saudi Arabia, which was particularly dangerous, since adultery is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia. (WIRED, 2025)
How Data Breaches are Exploited
The data that are stolen during these data breaches are often used to solicit ransom payments (WIRED, 2025), and sold to other scammers. (Schappert, 2026)
How do I know whether I was the victim of a data breach?
To check whether any of your own accounts were compromised, enter your email address at Have I Been Pwned and You've Been Pwnd.
Get Remote Computer Technical Support from SOHO Systems
If your data was compromised in a data breach, and you need help updating your login details and security, contact SOHO Systems for Remote Computer Technical Support.
Please Review Us
If you appreciate our content and tutorials, please review SOHO Systems on Google Search and Facebook.
References
Exclusive Networks (2025) 17 Cloud Computing Security Risks & How to Mitigate Them [Exclusive Networks] https://www.exclusive-networks.com/usa/resources/knowledge-base/articles/critical-security-risks-of-cloud-computing-in-2025
IBM (2024) Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024 [Report]. IBM. https://cdn.table.media/assets/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/30132828/Cost-of-a-Data-Breach-Report-2024.pdf
Lukosiute, K. (n.d.) Estimating global yearly cybercrime damage costs [Report]. GovAI. https://govai.b-cdn.net/Estimating_Global_Yearly_Cybercrime_Damage_Costs.pdf
Schappert, S. (2026, May 29) Scam broker sells data on 7M elderly Americans, gets 10 years in prison [Cybernews] https://cybernews.com/cybercrime/elderly-americans-data-sold-jamaican-lottery-scam-prison/
Wikipedia (n.d.-a) Data breach [Wikipedia] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_breach
WIRED (2025) 6 of the worst data breaches in U.S. history | Incognito Mode [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-mxhIL1lhM
For more information, please visit the official Interpol Cybercrime page and Smarttech247; our cybercrime archives, or those of Aljazeera, Cyber Security News, Cybernews, and The Hacker News; or run a Bing, DuckDuckGo or Google search for “data breach prevention”.
📅 June 11, 2026
🔃
🖨️
