When you divulge personal information to a company, you do it with the assumption that it's got your best interests at heart; that they're working night and day, and at all times in between, to ensure that your private info is safe from unsavory parties, right? Of course you do. However, the reality is while most companies do intend to keep your data safe, they're at the mercy of their security technology—and of those aforementioned unsavory parties who know very well how to compromise that technology.
Over the past few years we've seen a number of large companies announce major data breaches involving customer's personal data—credit card numbers, addresses, login information, etc.—caused by hackers. Usually, weak firewalls and encryption systems—or lack thereof—have played a vital part in the recent string of cyber attacks. Just recently, Twitter announced that an anonymous party got a hold of nearly 60,000 user names and passwords. The saddest part of all of this is that most of these companies aren’t even on their security A-game. From credit card processors to job websites, take a look at The 11 Worst Online Security Breaches.