Hezbollah data breach leads the list of the biggest cybersecurity events of the year

More than 490 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Hezbollah — a record for a single day, Lebanese authorities reported – Copyright AFP Jalaa MAREY

Hezbollah data breach in Lebanon is the latest major data breach recorded, causing thousands of injuries and nine fatalities.

New research has identified the most recent and biggest data breaches involving government or public entities, analysing the year of the breach, the number of people affected, the number of articles written, and how the breach occurred.

The analysis reveals France Travail Data Leak had the highest confirmed number of victims in 2024 and received the most media attention. In more general terms, hacking is the most common method of these breaches, affecting groups like the U.S. Presidential campaigns, France Travail, and India’s Medical Research Council.

The company Psono conducted research. The analysis focused on several metrics, including the year of the breach, the number of people affected, the number of articles written, and how the breach occurred. The final ranking was primarily based on the recency of the incident and the number of individuals impacted, providing an up-to-date overview of the biggest government data breaches in recent history.

The outcome is:

Leading the list is the recent 2024 Hezbollah data breach in Lebanon, which involved remote-controlled explosions. Although not a typical data leak, this is the latest breach recorded, referenced in more than 667,000 write-ups. The attack caused thousands of injuries and nine fatalities,  making it one of the most discussed governmental breaches.

The U.S. Presidential campaign breach of 2024 is ranked as the second largest breach. Hackers accessed both Trump’s and Biden’s campaigns, creating a serious risk to politics. Although the exact number of individuals impacted remains unknown, its political importance made it newsworthy, with over 80,000 reports.

The France Travail Data Leak takes the third spot, with 43 million individuals affected—marking it as the largest confirmed data breach victim count for 2024. It was referenced in over 865,700 articles, the highest media coverage overall.

The Indian Council of Medical Research Hack ranks as the fourth largest government breach on the list. While it might not have topped the headlines as much, with 48,900 articles, it impacted over 815 million people, the second-highest on record.

The Indonesian Directorate General of Population and Civil Registration Leak ranks fifth, with 337.2 million individuals affected. While this is a massive number, it appeared only in 21,900 articles, making it one of the least-covered incidents compared to the number of victims. 

Such breaches show that even the most secure organizations can be at risk, with hacking being the most common way attackers get in.