The biggest data breaches in 2024: 1 billion stolen records and rising

The report reviews several of 2024's largest cyber incidents, including massive data breaches and ransomware attacks that exposed hundreds of millions to over a billion records: AT&T call‑metadata leaks, the Change Healthcare/UnitedHealth ransomware theft of sensitive medical records, a Synnovis ransomware attack disrupting UK hospital services, widespread data theft from Snowflake customer environments (impacting Ticketmaster, Advance Auto Parts, and others), and multiple large broker and corporate breaches (Cencora, MediSecure, Kaiser, USPS tracker exposure, Evolve Bank, National Public Data). It highlights causes such as stolen credentials, lack of multi‑factor authentication, third‑party/cloud misconfigurations, and extortion by criminal ransomware gangs, and notes severe, long‑term impacts on individuals and critical services.