Hey, guys. Welcome to another exciting post by Tech2the Point. In this post, we bring you the top ten computer hacks of all time. But before we begin, if you're new here and haven't subscribed already, make sure to subscribe our News latter for interesting tech post every day. Let's see what we have at number ten.
10. April 27, 2007. Estonia
From April 27, 2007. Estonia. The European country faced a series of cyber attacks that lasted for weeks. This happened when the Estonian government decided to move the Bronze Soldier from Tallinn Centre to a less prominent military cemetery located on the city's outskirts. Unprecedented levels of Internet traffic took down Estonian
1. Bank's, online services,
2. Media outlets,
3. Broadcasters,
4. And Government bodies.
Botnets sent massive waves of spam and vast amounts of automated online requests. According to researchers, the public faced DDoS attacks. There were conflicts to edit the English language version of the Bronze Soldier's Wikipedia page as well. Although there is no confirmation Russia is believed to be behind the cyber attacks that largely crippled the Estonian society. Let's now move on to the next attack.
9. On December 23, 2015 Ukraine
On December 23, 2015, several parts of Ukraine witnessed a power outage. And this was not a typical blackout. It was indeed the result of a cyber attack. Information systems of three energy distribution companies in Ukraine were compromised. It is the first known victorious cyber attack on a power grid.
It is said that here, hackers sent out phishing emails to the power companies. 30 substations were switched off and about 2300 people were left in the dark for about one to 6 hours. US investigators believe that Russia based hackers were responsible for this. Experts have warned that other countries could also be vulnerable to such attacks.
8. In the year 1999, NASA computers!
In the year 1999, a cyber attack caused a 21 day shutdown of NASA computers. Unbelievable, isn't it? The hacker was none other than the then 15 year old Jonathan James. He first penetrated a US Department of Defence Division's computers and installed a backdoor on its servers. This allowed him to intercept more than a thousand government emails, including the ones containing usernames and passwords.
This helped James steal a piece of NASA software and crack the NASA computers that support the International Space Station, which cost the Space Exploration Agency $41,000. As systems were shut down for three weeks. He was the first person to carry out a computer hack against the American Space Agency. Let's now move on to the next attack.
7. In late November 2014, there was a leak of confidential data from the film studio Sony Pictures.
Information about Sony Pictures employees, their emails, copy of the then unreleased Sony Films, Future Propositions, and other crucial data were leaked. This cyber attack was carried out by a hacker group named Guardians of Peace. So what did the hackers want? Well, they demanded that Sony withdraw its then upcoming film, The Interview. The movie was a comedy storyline to assassinate the north Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Sony then decided to cancel the film's theatrical release. Due to the threats at cinemas screening the film, it is indeed hard to trace the roots of a cyber attack in this case. After evaluation, the US. Intelligence officials arrived at the theory that the attack was in a way related to the government of North Korea. However, North Korea had denied the same.
6. In December of 2006, T.J.Max, the US. Retailer company
In December of 2006, TJX, the US. Retailer company, identified that 45.6 million debt and credit card details were stolen. This happened from one of its systems over 18 months by an unknown number of intruders. It was one of the first largest ever cyberattacks involving the loss of personal data.
As a result, banks in the affected regions had to reissue and block thousands of payment cards. A group of hackers did this, Albert Gonzalez being the mastermind. The group was from Miami, the place where the TJmax heist was believed to have originated. Reports said that the TJmax data breach occurred because of weak WEP encryption at two of its Marshall stores in Miami. Next, moving on to our top five, let's see what we have at number five.
5. The year 2010 witnessed the discovery of the deadly computer worm Stuxnet.
This malware's motive was unlike any other usual cyber attacks. It aimed at disrupting the equipment the computers controlled. Stuxnet came with a deadly purpose of damaging Iran's nuclear infrastructure. It infected more than 2000 computers, including 14 industrial sites and a uranium enrichment plant in Iran.
Stuxnet initially spread via Microsoft Windows and targeted Siemens industrial control systems. Although it was discovered only in 2010, it is believed to have been silently sabotaging Iran's nuclear facilities. It was one of the first discovered malware that was capable of hampering hardware systems. It largely damaged the centrifuges of the Iranian reactors. It is believed to be a cyber weapon created by U.S. And Israeli intelligence, although there is no documented evidence or acceptance by either of the countries for the same.
4. Home Depot was the victim of one of the deadliest cyber attacks!
In the year 2014, Home Depot was the victim of one of the deadliest cyber attacks. 56 million payment cards were compromised, along with 53 million customer email addresses stolen.
The security breach happened from April to September 2014. Criminals were believed to have used a third party vendor's username and password to enter the perimeter of the Home Depot's network. The attackers were then able to deploy custom-built malware on its self checkout systems in the US. And Canada. Moving on to our top three.
3. Cyber attract by Sony Gaming Products
As you might be aware, the PlayStation gaming system is one of Sony's most popular products. Unfortunately, in April 2011, Sony executives witnessed abnormal activity on the PlayStation Network. This resulted in the compromise of approximately 77 million PlayStation users accounts and prevented users of PlayStation Three and PlayStation portable consoles from accessing the service. This forced Sony to turn off the PlayStation Network on April 20. On May 4.
Sony confirmed that personally identifiable information from each of the 77 million accounts had been exposed. The outage lasted 23 days. Sony released almost daily announcements concerning the system outage. In the end, Sony is believed to have invested approximately $170,000,000 to improve the network security, to investigate the attack, and to cover the expenses of caring for the consumers that had been affected. Let's now move on to the next attack at number two.
2. Ransomware attack caused by the One Cry crypto worm!
In May 2017, one of the deadliest cyber attacks took place. It was known as the One Cry ransomware attack caused by the One Cry crypto worm. The victims were the users that used the unsupported version of Microsoft Windows and those that hadn't installed the new security update. This did not take place through phishing like other attacks, but through an exposed, vulnerable SMB port. The attack originated in Asia and then eventually spread across the globe.
In a day, more than 2000 computers were infected across 150 countries. The Wanna Cry crypto worm locked the users out of the target systems and encrypted the data. The users were asked for a ransom of $300 to $600, which had to be paid via Bitcoin to exchange the data. This attack took a toll on private and government organizations. The attack resulted in damages from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars.
In a matter of a few days, the emergency patches released by Microsoft halted the attack. Also, the discovery of a kill switch prevented the infected computers from spreading the crypto worm. Security experts and a few countries believe that North Korea was behind this attack. And finally, let's see what we have here at number one.
1. The Melissa virus, a mass mailing Macro virus
More than two decades ago, in March 1999, the Melissa virus, a mass mailing Macro virus, was released.
It targeted Microsoft Word and Outlook Based systems and created considerable network traffic. Melissa virus infected computers via email. The email would look like an important message. Well, yes, it was fake. If the recipient opens the attachment in the mail and downloads the document and then opens it with Microsoft Word, a virus was released on their computers.
This would then mass mail itself to the first 50 people in the victim's contact list and then disable multiple safeguard features on Microsoft Word and Microsoft Outlook. This began spreading like wildfire across the internet. David L. Smith released the virus and this virus caused nearly $80 million worth of damages. It did not steal data or money, however, it caused havoc.
Almost 1 million email accounts were disrupted worldwide. Agencies were overloaded and some had to be shut down entirely, and internet traffic in some locations slowed down. So with that, we come to the end of this post on the top ten hacks of all time. Do you agree with our list? If you're aware of any other great, interesting computer hacks in history, do let us know in the comments section below.
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