If you followed current events over the past year, you would have heard about cyber-attacks quite often. Over a billion dollars was stolen in 2015 and almost 500 million records were leaked.
In other words, if you are not a victim yourself, chances are you already know someone who is. 2015 was also the year of collaboration as many hackers from around the world started working together. As a result, breaches became more sinister and the damages - extensive.
From the infamous incident at Sony to the Ashley Madison hack, 2015 brought in a new era of major cyber-attacks. Whether it was corporate giants or government agencies, hackers managed to successfully hit them all.
It will be difficult to cover all the cyber-attacks, so we have put together a list of the most notorious hacks of 2015:
1. US Government Office of Personnel Management
The United States Office of Personnel Management is an independent agency in charge of hiring the best minds for the US government. The organization was hacked twice resulting in a data breach of personal information about 22 million former and current federal employees.
The agency was tasked with performing background checks on federal employees, so the stolen data basically covered all important aspects of their lives.
The stolen data comprised of the following information:
· Employment history
· Educational history
· Financial history
· Criminal history
· Health history
· Fingerprints
· Social Security Numbers
· Acquaintances (Personal and Business)
This information can be easily used to steal identities or commit espionage. It was later revealed that the cyber-attack originated from China.
2. Anthem
Anthem was attacked in February last year and about 80 million records were breached. The hack accessed records of people with health plans like Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Amerigroup.
Further, employees and even the CEO were affected by the cyber-attack exposing Social Security Numbers, emails, and home addresses. The hackers were able to break into system by stealing the network credentials of approximately five senior IT staff.
According to Bloomberg, this attack also originated from China and was probably a state sponsored hack.
3. The Great Bank Robbery of 2015
The biggest bank robbery of the year was digital and the perpetrators are still at large. The attack started in 2013 when a group of unknown hackers started infiltrating financial firms through phishing.
The attack wasn’t uncovered until last year when it was discovered by Kaspersky Lab. The attack covered 30 countries and 100 banks.
Some of their exploits included online bank transfers and dispensing cash from ATMs. By the time the breach was discovered, about $1 billion was stolen.
4. Ashley Madison
One of the most popular stories of the year was the Ashley Madison hack. The hacker group “Impact Team” pinched the user database and tried to blackmail the parent company Avid Life Media to take the down the site. Since the sole purpose of Ashley Madison was to provide a platform to have an extramarital affair, the stakes were as high as you would expect it to be.
But as company stood its ground, the end result was the release of all its customer data. 37 million users were affected by the release of this information and some are still getting blackmailed by others who are accessing the released information.
The data dump covered user details as well as corporate emails, but that did not necessarily mean that you were a user of the site as there wasn’t any email verification. But that didn’t stop any political shaming or suicides.
5. T-Mobile
T-Mobile customer data was stolen last year as a result of a breach at the credit-checking company Experian. The data breach covered pertinent details of 15 million customers (even people who just applied to be customers).
This data breach didn’t even happen on T-Mobile’s system, but they were still affected as a result of their collaboration with Experian.
It essentially highlights the risk you take when relying on another company to keep your data protected. As security is an ongoing evolutionary process, it will be important to review the protocols followed by the company you’re working with on a regular basis.
Cyber-attacks are an ongoing battle for everyone to keep to keep hackers at bay. 2016 will only add a new dimension to this criminal activity as wearables keep growing in popularity.
Hackers have already started to take notice as recently, the fitness tracking device Fitbit was compromised. I guess you can say that it’s a sign of things to come.
Check out more on IT security on the Intersog Blog.
What were the hacking stories that got your attention over the past year?
