A Hack Like No Other

Throughout the last few years there have been numerous major hacks that have devastated different companies, but the three most notable ones are Sony, Target, and Ashley Madison. The all have various reasons that make these hacks significantly different than ordinary hacks either because of the amount of data stolen, why it was hacked, or the type of company that was attacked.

With the Target hack people lost credit card information on a huge scale with the resulting in the company having to settle many different multi million dollar lawsuits with everyone from credit card companies, various banks, and of course to the consumers. This also resulted in lost of trust in a  brand because Target missed some warning signs that they were compromised and failing to act immediately. This was also one of the largest hacks affecting about 40 million people.

The Sony hack was different because unlike money or information grabs this hack almost seemed to be strictly to leak information and expose people and projects within the company. This later turned out to be a hack based on the  movie “The Interview”and the group Guardians of the Peace claimed full responsibility for it. The hack was later linked to the North Korean government  based on the movies depiction of the killing of their leader Kim Jong-un. This hack compromised upwards of 50,000 employees and associates of Sony with leaking of social security card numbers, addresses, contracts, movie scripts, as well as personal emails. This was possibly the largest corporate attacks in history and served more as an embarrassment to Sony than actual money value as some leaked information and resources cost people their jobs and status.

The Ashley Madison hack is a different breed entirely with the whole site essentially existing as a match.com of sorts for people looking to have an affair. Looking at the websites homepage

and it reads “Life is short. Have an Affair” and this is really all you need to know to understand what they are all about. Ashley Madison was a scam in a lot of ways with its 40 million customers only 3% of them are woman. The excessive amounts of users were thought to be made up profiles to help boost the companies numbers and help entice more people to the site. The hack that hit the site in August not on hurt the sites already extremely sketchy reputation but resulted in all members information being leaked and posted online  for public viewing. This hack resulted in people who used the site trying to sue in private under false names to protect their image. This hack was more interesting than most cause it shows how much men want sex, how sex driven society has become and lastly that what happens in the dark is always hacked in the light. The end result for Ashley Madison is that the users wanted an escape and creators were there to give you what you wanted; a true lie. The irony behind this is that by definition a hack is a forceful breach of someones system through the use of a computer, and truthfully that was what Ashley Madison was to a lot of households in the world a hack into their personal data, lives, loves and lusts.