2025 has been a rough year for companies of every size. Attackers used stolen credentials, weak vendor controls, cloud account leaks, on-prem holes, and targeted attacks on health data. Below, I walk through the top five breaches that made headlines this year, what failed at the business level across governance, people, processes, and technology, and the simple actions that help lower risk. I am writing this in a straightforward, conversational style because clarity is what decision-makers need most.
Every business should ask three basic questions.
● Which vendors hold critical keys?
● Who has permanent admin rights?
● How quickly can operations be restored when a supplier fails?
These answers shape a company's entire security strategy.
In November 2025, the e-commerce giant Coupang reported a massive breach affecting about 33.7 million customer accounts. Compromised data included names, email addresses, phone numbers, shipping addresses and order history. While payment details or login credentials were reportedly not exposed, the leak still poses major privacy and phishing-risk concerns. The breach is suspected to have originated from overseas servers, with a former employee under investigation highlighting insider or third-party risk vectors.
Why it matters: For businesses that store customer data even “non-sensitive” fields a breach of this magnitude can destroy trust, trigger regulatory scrutiny, and lead to long-term brand damage.
Lesson To Learn: Strong insider-threat monitoring + robust access controls are crucial.
In July 2025, the city St. Paul, Minnesota (USA) was hit by a coordinated cyber-attack that disrupted core city systems including internal networks, payment portals, and public-facing services. The disruption was so severe that the state’s National Guard was deployed and a state of emergency declared.
Why it matters: This shows how cyberattacks are not limited to data theft; critical infrastructure and public services are also in peril. For businesses (especially in sectors like logistics, utilities, supply-chain), cascading effects from such incidents can be enormous.
Lesson To Learn: Operational disruption can be more damaging than data theft resilience matters.
In November 2025, the software services firm GlobalLogic admitted that personal data of over 10,000 current and former employees had been stolen. The exposed data reportedly included names, addresses, passport and tax IDs, bank account details, salary information, etc. Attackers reportedly exploited a zero-day vulnerability in Oracle E-Business Suite (Oracle EBS) underlining how even enterprise-grade systems can be compromised if not updated or properly hardened.
Why it matters: For businesses using enterprise software, this breach illustrates the risk of unpatched vulnerabilities and the critical need for regular security audits, especially for financial, payroll, or HR systems that hold sensitive employee data.
Lesson To Learn: Even big enterprise software needs continuous patching + security audits.
According to a global summary of October 2025 breaches, Prosper Marketplace (a U.S.fintech/loan-platform) suffered a breach exposing around 17.6 million records including personal identifiable information such as names, addresses, birth dates, SSNs, and income details.The root cause was reportedly unauthorized access via compromised administrative credentials.
Why it matters: This breach emphasises how credential compromise, especially administrative or privileged accounts, remains one of the top causes of large-scale data leaks. For businesses, securing admin accounts must be a priority.
Lesson to Learn: Admin account security MFA and strict privilege controls must be non-negotiable.
In 2025, threat actors under the banner of ShinyHunters exploited vulnerabilities in third-party platforms like Salesforce and other vendor tools to exfiltrate data from multiple companies including some big names in finance, travel, insurance and retail. These attacks relied heavily on social engineering or stolen credentials rather than direct intrusion into core infrastructure; this underscores how supply-chain and vendor risk has become a major threat vector.
Why it matters: Increasingly, breaches are occurring not because of weak internal security but because of vulnerabilities in vendors or third-party tools. Businesses must consider their entire supply chain when designing security measures.
Lesson To Learn: Your cybersecurity is only as strong as your weakest vendor.
● Use strong, unique passwords to avoid reuse across platforms.
● Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for all admin or privileged accounts.
● Monitor and audit administrative credentials; restrict access only where needed.
● Audit the security practices of any vendor, SaaS, or cloud platform before integrating.
● Treat vendor-platform breaches as part of your risk to avoid complacency just because “you didn’t host the data.”
● Maintain a vendor-dependency register and require security/compliance assurances from vendors.
● Only store data that you truly need; avoid hoarding sensitive data unnecessarily.
● Use the principle of least privilege only gives access to data/resources employees need.
● Regularly review data retention purge old/unneeded data safely.
● Keep enterprise software, CRMs and ERPs (like Oracle EBS) up-to-date.
● Maintain a patching schedule especially for systems dealing with sensitive or personal data.
● Perform regular security audits and penetration tests (even for smaller businesses).
● Prepare an Incident Response (IR) plan to know who acts when a breach occurs.
● Include vendor-related breach scenarios, not just internal ones.
● Train employees in recognizing phishing/social-engineering the majority of big 2025 breaches had human-factor components.
Cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated and systemic, not just isolated hacks. Breaches often stem from supply-chain weaknesses, third-party tools, or human error. Holding sensitive data demands holistic security thinking identity, governance, vendor risk, patching, and response planning. For small and mid-sized firms (especially those scaling operations), strategic cybersecurity investment is no longer optional; it's a necessary safeguard for business reputation, customer trust and compliance.
The major breaches of 2025 from the massive customer-data leak at Coupang to the vendor-platform exploitation by ShinyHunters reinforce a stark reality: no business is too small or too niche to ignore cybersecurity. Mistakes in credentials, vendor choices, patching, or data governance can lead to severe damage. If you run a business (or plan to), investing in identity management, vendor vetting, data hygiene, and incident preparedness will go a long way toward safeguarding your most valuable assets: your data, your customers, and your reputation.
Do not wait for a breach to realize the value of cybersecurity! Connect with Us & secure your business before hackers find the door.
In our newsletter, explore an array of projects that exemplify our commitment to excellence, innovation, and successful collaborations across industries.