5 hack attacks that shocked the world - Pdf Slider

In today’s world, no one can move and work without mammoth data in his device. Digital transformation has given rise to data moving, data storing, and data transfer. Such features have made life easier and facilitated the sharing the information from one place and device to another that might be present in another corner of the world.

As more and more people are getting dependent on technology to make life easier, data-driven technologies have also scaled up the data breaches. The advancement in technology has also come with some drawbacks that are threatening the safety and security of data usage at the hands of hackers. And it’s not just the best android spyware for phones or iPhones that can be a source of data leaks – some of the hack attacks have carried monumental significance.

The attackers misuse the data dependencies of people by carrying out cyberattacks and hacking the potential software.

How the large cyberattacks are going to shape the future, is still unknown, but some of the biggest data breaches and hack attacks that shocked the world are listed below.

1) 2013: Yahoo Cyberattack

In 2016, research into the Yahoo attack that occurred in 2013 revealed that account information of 3 billion of its customers had been accessed by a hacking group. Out of all these accounts that were hacked, 8 million accounts were UK-based. The data stolen was mainly from information such as names, phone numbers, passwords, email addresses. Encrypted and unencrypted security questions and answers were taken as well.

It has been found through investigation that the seller, with the nickname “Peace”, is believed to be a broker of information. The findings also show that the attacker was also responsible to have stolen the data from MySpace and LinkedIn.

2) 2014: Suspected North Korea attack on Sony

A group of some hackers disguised as Guardians of Peace gained access to Sony Pictures’ computer network. The company was shaken badly due to a crippling cyberattack and suffered huge losses.

Park Jin Hyok, who is believed to be in North Korea, connived with others to conduct a spate of attacks that also included this hack that resulted in a devastating business loss for the company.

The US Justice Department charged Park in September 2018 for being the mastermind behind the hack.

3) 2015: Ukraine power grid hack

In 2015, an attack on the Ukraine power grid was made by some hackers that left some 230,000 people in the dark for up to 6 hours straight. The hackers infiltrated three energy companies and blocked the power generation temporarily in three regions of Ukraine.

The attack is said to be the first-ever made hack attack on any electricity distribution network. Ukraine’s security service made the Russian government responsible for the attack and showed serious concern.  Those who have investigated the attack, allegedly say that the hack attack can be traced back to Russia.

Even the best cell phone spy app or iPhones can’t go beyond the torchlight of a single device.

4) 2016: Russians allegedly hack US Democrats

During the 2016 presidential elections, some alleged Russian hackers leaked thousands of emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the Democratic Party’s governing board. It has been observed that the leak embarrassed the party’s leadership, who showed contempt in some emails for the campaign of Bernie Sanders, the candidate for the party’s presidential nominee. The US Justice Department later on after investigation, charged 12 Russians for executing the attack who were allegedly the agents of Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU, to be responsible for the attack.

The investigation was done by Special Counsel Robert Mueller who was investigating the case further revealed that the Russian government intruded in the business affairs of the United States by carrying out cyberattacks and helping the then-Republican Party candidate Donald Trump to win.

5) WordPress

Lately, WordPress security has announced a massive Botnet attack on its sites. According to the reports, 20,000 sites under WordPress have been interrupted using a hacking device. The attack was created by the botnet, under which the attackers used a Russian proxy provider under the name “best-proxies.ru”. The proxy provider was attached to a network of 14,000 proxy servers that thereby infected 20,000 WordPress sites.

A Defiant Threat Intelligence team investigated the attack and found it to be connected with “best-proxies.ru”. The overall attack and its infrastructure were successfully identified by the team and reported.

The unharmed users were warned to follow restrictions and lockout for failed logins, to save their sites.