In 2014, Sony Pictures’ computers not only had their data compromised but their data on the affected machines got corrupted as well.  Confidential employee data was leaked out to the public as well as important intellectual properties, such as movies that have yet to be released to the public.  The hackers then wiped all data off of the machines they were able to compromised by using a virus to infect vulnerable machines.  In the same year, Sony experienced downtime on the Playstation network as attackers disabled the service, preventing users from access their data online and purchasing products from the Playstation Store.  As a result, Sony lost out on a lot of opportunity cost.  Unlike the hack with Sony Pictures, this attack was done by a different group that goes by the name of the Lizard Squad. 
What would have happened if the data that was compromised was encrypted? Even though hackers could have gotten a hold of the data, it wouldn't have been useful to them if they couldn't read the actual data itself. With better encryption, the employee data would have been kept private despite the intrusion.
In order for some government agencies to identify hackers and potential hackers more quickly, some government agencies have started enacting laws to aid that process. Unfortunately, some of these laws are putting the citizens at risk. In order to monitor the internet, the government agencies have been arguing to put in backdoors in standard encryption. Not only does this invades the citizens' privacy but it severely weakens the encryption. So, not only is the data readable by the government but it also gives outside intruders an easier way to break the encryption.