Aadhaar (2018)

India's Aadhaar database breach in 2018 compromised the biometric data of 1.1 billion citizens, with access sold for as little as $7 via WhatsApp. The incident exposed critical flaws in government security design, risking identity theft for over 80% of India's population. Its political impact—undermining trust in national identity systems—outweighs the quantifiable cost of #1 Yahoo's breach, yet the immediate financial damage was far lower per record.