Introduction: A Tense Start to 2026
January 2026 has already witnessed a surge in data breaches, with attackers targeting telecoms, healthcare, finance, and crypto sectors. Over 1.5 million individuals have been impacted in confirmed incidents so far, highlighting vulnerabilities in third-party services and legacy systems. This report aggregates the top breaches reported through January 20, updated daily from credible sources.
Top Breaches by Impact
Ranked by estimated number of affected individuals or data volume:
- Brightspeed (Jan 18): Fiber broadband provider investigates claims by Crimson Collective hackers of stealing personal data from over 1 million customers. Investigation ongoing.
- CIRO (Jan 16): Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization discloses breach of 750,000 people‘s data from a 2025 phishing attack.
- Medusind Inc. (Jan 7): Medical billing firm hit by cyberattack exposing 360,000 individuals‘ personal, health, insurance, and payment data.
- Allegheny Health Network (Jan 17): Home medical services compromised, potentially exposing 292,773 individuals‘ data.
- Ledger / Global-e (Jan 7): Crypto wallet provider’s payment processor breached, affecting customer names, contacts, and orders for multiple brands; data brokers claim 200M+ records.
Other Notable Incidents
- Sedgwick (Jan 4): Ransomware gang TridentLocker claims 3.4GB stolen from government subsidiary.
- Asheville Eye Associates (Jan 17): Over 200,000 individuals‘ health and insurance data seized.
- Buffalo Surgery Center (Jan 4): Affiliate hack impacts up to 64,000 patients.
- Heritage Health Care (Jan 9): 12,000 people‘s PII, SSNs, and health data from 2024 attack disclosed.
- NordVPN Claim (Jan 4): Hacker ‘1011’ alleges breach of internal databases with API keys and tokens; described as non-production test data exposure.
Common Attack Vectors and Trends
Key patterns include supply chain compromises (e.g., Global-e affecting Ledger), ransomware claims (TridentLocker), phishing (CIRO), and third-party incidents (Ledger’s processor). Healthcare remains a prime target, with multiple breaches exposing sensitive PII and medical records. Expect daily updates as investigations unfold.
What You Can Do to Protect Yourself
- Monitor services like Have I Been Pwned for your email.
- Enable MFA everywhere and use unique passwords.
- Freeze your credit and watch for phishing.
- Update software and use VPNs cautiously.
- For Ledger users: Change passwords and monitor accounts.