While computers were mostly the property of the military and scientists, hacking was directed against them. But over time, computerization has reached such proportions that hacker attacks can directly or indirectly affect a huge percentage of the population.
After all, today it is difficult to find a person who does not have a bank card or does not use the services of modern technological services.
Based on the Petya. A virus attack, on June 27, NV chose the 7 most high-profile hacker attacks in history.
1. Attack of Ashley Madison
One of the most epic scandals in the history of the Internet.
Ashley Madison, a Canadian online dating service targeted at married people, was launched in 2002 under the slogan: “Life is short. Start a romance on the side.”
By 2015, the service had more than 40 million users worldwide.
A hacker group calling itself The Impact Team hacked Ashley Madison’s servers and stole users’ personal information. Soon after, user data began to “pop up” on various sites and forums across the Internet.
It is difficult to calculate the number of divorces provoked by these leaks. More importantly, in some cases, people committed suicide after information about their account and correspondence became public. There were at least a dozen such cases.
2. Stuxnet worm
This famous virus was discovered in 2010. With its help, Iran’s nuclear program was stopped. The same program that disobedient Iran has refused to curtail, despite all persuasions and threats from the rest of the world.
According to some American media, Stuxnet was jointly developed by the US and Israeli intelligence services.
They tested it together at a data center in the Israeli desert, and then entered it into a computer network used by Iranian scientists involved in Iran’s nuclear program.
The “worm” seized control of two-thirds of the uranium centrifuges and made minor adjustments to their work. Because of this, the Iranians did not immediately suspect something was wrong. Instead, they have led astray and believed that their research was moving in the wrong direction.
In 2011, when the story became public, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that thanks to this hacker attack, Iran’s nuclear program was rejected at least a few years ago.
3. Melissa virus
In the spring of 1999, David Smith, a programmer from New Jersey, released a virus on the Internet that could infiltrate computers running Windows.
The virus was disguised as an attached Microsoft Word file with the electronic tag “Important message from …”.
The special attraction of the virus was added by the fact that in the attachment of the letter there was a text file, which allegedly contained passwords to paid porn sites. The calculation was successful.
After the user clicked on the attachment, Melissa stepped up and ordered the computer to copy itself as a mass mailing for the first fifty contacts.
Users actively opened the file. However, it did not have passwords. Instead, there was a macro that infected the user’s computer.
The virus has modified critical system files. According to some data, 20% of computers in the world have been infected with this virus. Naturally, we are talking about computers on Windows.
Melissa virus has not only spawned a whole generation of followers but is also one of the long-lived parasites. According to experts, copies of the virus are still circulating on the Internet and infecting users’ computers. Those who don’t like to upgrade Windows.
4. Sony Playstation database
The hacking of the Sony Playstation has become one of the biggest highlights of recent years
In April 2011, a group of hackers calling themselves Lulzsec hacked Sony’s database on the Playstation network, making the contact information, logins, and passwords of 77 million players public.
Sony officials were quick to reassure the public that credit card data had not been stolen.
The scandal became epic. Sony has been forced to suspend its gaming service for a few days to improve security and patch holes.
The scale of the scandal and Sony’s reputational losses did not diminish, even after it became clear that the information stolen by hackers was not sold or used to the detriment of anyone.
By the way, in 2014 Sony servers were hacked again. This time the hackers were interested in the company’s film business. Unpublished copies of films and internal correspondence of producers were stolen.
The attack was linked to North Korea. The Korean hackers allegedly wanted to prevent Sony Pictures from releasing a film about an attempt to assassinate the leader of their country.
5. Home Depot
In the summer of 2014, hackers hacked the servers of the large American retail network Home Depot.
The hack was caused by a vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows operating system.
Upon learning of the attack on Home Depot, Microsoft released a “patch” that closed the hole, but it was too late. Hackers have been in the system for some time and stole data from more than 56 million payment cards.
The exact damage from a hacker attack is difficult to calculate, but the important fact is the most massive theft of user data in history. And it became possible due to one vulnerability in the operating system.
6. eBay
The world’s most popular online trading platform, eBay, suffered a severe blow to its reputation in the summer of 2014, when a hacker attack leaked the personal data of more than 145 million users.
However, the leak did not affect financial information, payment card data, etc.
The reputational damage to eBay has been enormous. Millions of online shoppers have lost their password-protected data. This hacker attack turned out to be one of the most public in the history of the Internet. And eBay is still trying to tarnish its reputation as a “leaky” cybersecurity company.
7. Spamhaus: The biggest DDOS attack in history
In March 2013, the Spamhaus service, which maintains a blacklist of spammers and hackers, became the object of the most powerful DDOS attack in the history of the Internet.
A DDOS attack is essentially a massive data stream. Using thousands of computers, sometimes around the world, hackers flood and overload computer systems.
In March 2013, this specific DDOS attack was so large that it slowed down the entire Internet around the planet, as well as completely turned it off in some parts of the world for hours.
The criminals used hundreds of DNS servers to retransmit signals, amplifying the effect of the attack and transmitting up to 300 gigabits per second to each server on the network.
Conclusion
The attack has become an act of retaliation, because thanks to Spamhaus, there are blacklists of Internet servers from which unwanted mailings of colossal proportions are carried out. ISPs around the world can use these lists to block spam sources, and thus save their users from the shaft of “Nigerian happiness letters” and interesting offers such as “enlarge your pencil”.
Author Bio:
Magnus Bane is an assignment writer dedicated to the development of digital marketing content. He is also engaged as a content creator for Bestessay.com where she brings the readers closer to some of the best online writing agencies. Her goal is to provide practical information that solves the problems of her audience through insightful and researched writing.
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