THE 7 LARGEST CYBERATTACKS IN HISTORY
Organizations that do not respond to cyber incidents efficiently can suffer major losses, such as loss of credibility, sanctions, and fines.
THE 7 MAIN CYBERATTACKS
1. Melissa Virus
2. Colonial Pipeline
3. Incident at Sony
4. Yahoo data leak
5. Attack on Kaseya
6. SolarWinds
7. Microsoft data leak
1. MELISSA VIRUS
The Melissa virus became known in 1999 due to its rapid spread due to opening unsolicited email attachments. It targeted systems based on Microsoft Word and Outlook.
This virus inspired the creation of other, more potent viruses and reinforced concerns about digital security.
2. COLONIAL PIPELINE
In May 2021, the American oil pipeline company Colonial Pipeline was the target of a cyberattack, which impacted its infrastructure of devices and gas pipelines, in addition to the distribution and transport of gasoline.
3. INCIDENT AT SONY
Malicious agents accessed and copied the personal data of 77 million users of the Playstation Network (PSN) and the Qriocity music sales portal, in addition to taking Sony’s services offline in 2011.
In January 2013, the company was fined £250,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office in the United Kingdom for leaking data.
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4. DATA LEAKAGE AT YAHOO
In 2014, 500 million Yahoo user accounts were compromised due to a major cyberattack.
However, apparently the malicious attackers only had access to basic information and passwords, bank details were not stolen.
5. ATTACK ON KASEYA
In July 2021, some suspicious activities were performed on the VSA servers, software developed by Kaseya, which offers services to technology systems management companies. Realizing that it was a cyberattack, the organization’s CEO shut down the VSA servers and prevented the action, which compromised around 1500 companies, from impacting a much larger number of customers.
6. SOLARWINDS
In December 2020, Russian hackers exploited vulnerabilities found in the SolarWinds infrastructure monitoring and management software solution. In this way, they sent malicious updates to about 18 thousand customers of the organization.
With this, attackers could gain access to customer networks and carry out other attacks, distributing malware and impersonating users to access files.
Several government agencies and private companies were affected.
7. MICROSOFT DATA LEAK
In March 2022, it was Microsoft’s turn to be attacked by a group of hackers called Lapsus$.
At the time, cybercriminals posted a screenshot on Telegram, indicating the cyberattack.
However, Microsoft quickly stopped the action of the attackers, preventing the theft of data from its users.