2015 Event The U.S. Internal Revenue Service reveals that hackers who stole taxpayer data in May had accessed additional databases, adding 220,000 to the previous estimate of 114,000 taxpayers who have had their information compromised 2015 Event NASA's New Horizons probe reestablishes contact to transmit the first close photos of Pluto and its moons; the probe launched in 2006 and has traveled over 3 billion miles; it will continue transmitting data for the next 16 months 2015 Event Philae, the comet lander that was deposited on Comet 67P last year, has awoken after several months in hibernation due to low power; scientists hope that the lander's power will last long enough for them to download data 2015 Event Parts of the U.S. Patriot Act, including authorization of bulk phone data collection by the National Security Administration, expire due to lack of agreement in the Senate regarding extension 2015 Event Hackers steal personal data for about 100,000 taxpayers after breaking into a U.S. Internal Revenue Service system that allows taxpayers to retrieve previous tax returns; the data can be used to file tax refund claims and commit identity theft 2015 Event NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft ends its three-year orbit around Mercury with a planned crash into the planet's surface; originally, the probe was to orbit and collect data for one year, but fuel saving efforts extended its mission for two more years 2015 Event Smartflash, a Texas technology licensing company, has won $532.9 million in a lawsuit against Apple for infringement of data management software patents; Apple claims that the patents are invalid and that it never used the technology in question 2015 Event Hackers steal personal data on up to 80 million customers of health insurance provider Anthem, Inc.; though free credit monitoring is being offered to victims, such monitoring won't detect or prevent medical identity theft 2014 Event Office supply company Staples announces that up to 1.16 million cards may have been affected by a data breach in October; the company is offering free identity theft protection for shoppers at the affected stores and advises all customers to monitor their credit records 2014 Event NASA awakens its New Horizons craft from hibernation for the last time; the vessel was launched 9 years ago to travel over 3 billion miles to Pluto and will be within range to begin data collection on the planet in January 2015 2014 Event Japan launches an explorer that will take samples and collect data from the surface of an asteroid; the six-year trip will include eighteen months of study and data collection 2014 Event JPMorgan Chase discloses that a July data breach resulted in exposure of contact information for 83 million households; the bank states that security information, such as passwords and birth dates, did not appear to have been compromised 2014 Event NASA Mars probe MAVEN is on track to enter the planet's orbit after a 10-month journey; the probe will collect data for a year on the upper Martian atmosphere to potentially answer questions about climate change on the planet 2014 Event Court documents have been unsealed for rulings in 2008 requiring companies to give customers' online data to the U.S. government with no warrant; the papers show that Yahoo! sued but lost, resulting in compliance by Yahoo!, Google, Apple, and others 2014 Event Home Depot may be the source of a new data breach, resulting in theft of thousands of customer credit card numbers; the company was indicated as the source by various banks after the data appeared for sale online 2014 Event Community Health Systems Inc., a private hospital company, reveals that Social Security numbers and other personal data were stolen for 4.5 million patients in April and June; the company believes the attack is the work of Chinese hackers 2014 Event Over 1.2 billion security credentials have been stolen in a Russian-led hacking ring; data was stolen from over 420,000 websites, but the websites and victim names have not yet been disclosed 2014 Event The U.S. Supreme Court agrees with a lower court ruling that Google's Street View data collection violated anti-wiretapping laws by capturing personal data from wi-fi networks 2014 Event Telecom company Vodafone reports that certain nations allow authorities direct access to citizen communications data without a warrant; the company is prohibited from revealing the names of these nations 2014 Event The Malaysian government has released the last transmission from Malaysian Air Flight 370; the data confirm that the plane was last located over the eastern Indian Ocean; over a year of mapping and search may be needed before remnants might be found 2014 Event Mobile photo sharing app Snapchat settles with the Federal Trade Commission after acknowledging that it falsely claimed that data sent through the app would disappear rather than form a permanent record, creating user privacy violations 2014 Event Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel has resigned in the wake of security breaches late last year in which customer data was stolen; the company will be run by John Mulligan, the company's Chief Financial Officer, until a new president is identified 2014 Event Michaels Stores, Inc. states that data for 2.6 million payment cards at its Michaels stores and 400,000 cards at its Aaron Brothers stores may have been compromised in a security breach; the breaches occurred between May 8, 2013 and February 27, 2014 2014 Event A flaw in OpenSSL, the encryption method for many websites, has been identified, potentially compromising user security data across the Internet; web users are urged to change login names and passwords immediately 2014 Event Greenpeace releases its annual energy efficiency report praising several Internet companies, including Apple, which scored poorly a couple of years ago; Amazon was noted as lagging behind in use of renewable energy for its data centers 2014 Event The government of the U.K. has announced that it will put 11 million pounds into the funding of the Square Kilometer Array project, a radio telescope that will collect massive amounts of data from space, requiring immense computing resources 2014 Event It is revealed that the National Security Agency, NSA, is using software to spy on nearly 100,000 computers around the world; most of the software is implanted by accessing the Internet, but some technology enables data to be entered or altered through radio wave transmission 2013 Event A data breach at Target Corporation caused the security of 40 million credit and debit cards used at Target stores to be compromised 2013 Event An experimental privacy feature on Google's Android mobile software is removed, raising objections from the Electronic Frontier Foundation; the feature allowed users to block apps from collecting personal information such as a user's location and address book data 2013 Event NASA completes a launch of the MAVEN, whose mission is to study Mars atmosphere in depth' the data from the MAVEN will help researchers construct a history of the climate on Mars and should help them understand how the water on Mars disappeared 2013 Event Upon completion of the nuclear genome of a 24,000 year old Siberian boy, the data reveals that two-thirds of today's Native Americans come from Eastern Asia and only one-third originated in Western Eurasia 2013 Event Credit card information, among other data of 2.9 million Adobe consumers was stolen during a cyber attack on the company's website 2013 Event The public learns about AT&T's The Hemisphere Project, which gives telephone call data to law enforcement agencies, including the DEA 2013 Event New data reveals that over 280 previously unknown craters exist on the Moon 2013 Event Google agrees to settle a privacy lawsuit, paying a $7 million fine over its handling of wireless data from early 2008 until the spring of 2010 2013 Event For the first time since launching Google Maps, Google extends its data coverage of North Korea, filling in previously blank areas on most of the country with detailed maps that identify landmarks 2013 Event European Bioinformatics Institute scientists have successfully stored audio and text on fragments of DNA, and retrieved them with 99.99% accuracy - the first time in history DNA has been used for data storage 2012 Event Light from the first stars in the universe is detected by astronomers studying high-energy radiation data; the data suggests these stars existed as early as 500 million years after the 'big bang' 2012 Event Data from the 1940 U.S. census is released including information on 132 million people 2011 Event Iran refuses to return the RQ-170 Sentinel that Iran captured after it crash landed in the country; Iran reports they are extracting data from the aircraft 2010 Event The transcript of the flight data recorders from the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash that killed 96 Polish officials and intellectuals is published 2000 Death John W. Tukey, professor/computer theorist, The Practice of Data Analysis, dies at 85 1982 Event Russian spacecraft Venera 14 lands and sends back data from Venus 1982 Event Russian spacecraft Venera 14 lands on Venus, sends back data 1979 Event Percom Data Company Inc release Microdos for Radio Shack's TRS-80 1969 Event Venera 5 lands on Venus, returns data on atmosphere 1967 Event Soviet Venera 4 becomes 1st probe to send data back from Venus 1965 Event Ranger 8 makes hard landing on the Moon, returns photos, other data 1964 Event U.S.S.R. launches Zond 2 towards Mars; no data returned 1964 Event U.S. launches Mariner 3 toward Mars; no data returned 1964 Event U.S.S.R. launches Zond 1 to Venus; no data returned 1962 Event Ross Perot begins Electronic Data Systems, EDS 1962 Event Launch of OSO 1, 1st astronomy satellite (solar flare data)
