Gallery: The 10 biggest business hacks of 2016

Yahoo!

One theme dominated cybersecurity trends in 2016: Change your password. 2016's biggest corporate hack was the revelation that a 2014 Yahoo hack--allegedly perpetrated by the group known as Pease--exposed the private information of more than half a billion accounts.

Yahoo! / CNET

The DNC, DNCC, and Clinton Foundation

Embarrassing email and other data from the Democratic National Committee, the Clinton Foundation, and other accounts related to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton were hacked in early 2016. Data trickled out through the summer via the Guccifer 2.0 website and Wikileaks, and resulted in key staff changes within the Democratic establishment.

CNET

Dropbox

We'll say it again: Change your passwords. Nearly 7 million Dropbox user accounts, including usernames and passwords, were exposed and sold on Dark Web market TheRealDeal (link requires Tor) by an unknown hacker group. The company stated the passwords were expired, but several Reddit users claimed some passwords worked.

Dropbox

SWIFT

SWIFT is a communication platform used by banks around the world. In February 2016 hackers exploited a security loophole to swipe more than $80 million from the Bangladesh central bank. Since the initial hack, banks that continue to use SWIFT have been targeted by copycat attacks.

Getty Images/iStockphoto

Dyn DDoS

On Friday, October 21, 2016, the internet went dark. A massive DDoS attack targeted at DNS provider Dyn prevented millions of users in major economic hubs like New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and Boston from accessing major websites, including Twitter, Amazon, and Netflix.

Getty Images/iStockphoto

Bitfinex

Bitcoin has the potential to change global finance. For now, however, the world's most widely used crytopcurrency remains a magnet for criminals. In August exchange platform Bitfinex stopped trading following the news that hackers stole 119,756 Bitcoins valued at $65 million from hosted wallets. Though the exchange is back online, the hack helped undermine confidence in Bitcoin and unregulated markets.

CNET

NSA Cyber-munitions

The US government develops and stockpiles cyber-munitions--weaponized, malicious code that spies on and sabotages target systems. In August, a group known as The Shadow Brokers stole and auctioned what the group claimed were hacking tools created by the Equation Group, the NSA's hacking arm.

alexaldo, Getty Images/iStockphoto

Cisco

If you've applied for a job at Cisco and used the company's Professional Careers mobile employment portal, you may want to change your password. In November the company announced that an "incorrect security setting" resulted in exposing "a limited set of job application-related information," including name, address, race, gender, veteran status, disability status, username, password, answers to security questions, education, professional profile, cover letter, and resume text.

Cisco

Adult Friend Finder

Sensitive information, including usernames, passwords, and last visit records for nearly 400 million accounts, as well as 15 million "deleted" accounts still in the database, were swiped from the Adult Friend Finder network in November. Ahem...change your password.

CNET

Wendy's

At the fast-food restaurant Wendy's you can get a get an "old fashioned hamburger." If you bought that burger with a credit card, your data might have been stolen. In July the company announced that malware had likely infected computers in 1,025 of its 5,144 franchise stores. Delicious!

Read more TechRepublic cybersecurity stories.

CNET