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2014 Year in Review
Cyber Security – Security Breaches
Cyber Security and the increasing number of cyber attacks/hacks into the federal government, government contractors, and
commercial corporations led news headlines throughout all of 2014. This year we witnessed a series of high-profile security
breaches, from the aftermath of the Target and Home Depot fiascos, to the Apple iCloud data breaches, to a number of attacks on
national retailers and their point of sales systems, including Michaels, Staples and Neiman Marcus. Then there was the massive
data breach at JP Morgan Chase, which compromised personal information of more than 83 million households and businesses,
and finally more than 100 terabytes of internal files and films were stolen from Sony Pictures, allegedly by North Korea.
Source: InfoBase; Capital IQ as of 12/31/13
Federal Government agencies and programs were targeted as well. The
United States Postal Service was hacked in November, and as a result
was unable to produce an annual financial statement due to the damage.
The IRS and Healthcare.gov/Obamacare were not immune to cyber
hacks, nor was OPM’s background investigations contractor USIS. Cyber
security will continue to remain a priority in our nation’s defense especially
as threats to our nation’s infrastructure have increased over the last year.
In December, a bill was introduced in the Senate to increase information-
sharing about cyber attacks between private companies and the US
government to detect crimes faster and thwart hackers. Additionally, the
Department of Justice created a new Cybersecurity Office to assist in
worldwide investigations of cyber crimes.
Cyber Security M&A
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Timeline of 2014 Notable Data Breaches
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec