Bitter taste of 5 biggest hacker attacks in 2014
Summing up the last year, I would like to put the most large-scale hacker attacks 2014 into the context. Those attacks made tens of millions of internet users worldwide feel extremely deceived. Let's look at a brief history of each of the break-ins and find out what they have taught us.
1. JPMorgan Chase
A cyberattack this summer on JPMorgan Chase compromised the accounts of 76 million households and seven million small businesses, a tally that dwarfs previous estimates by the bank and puts the intrusion among the largest ever.
Despite the fact that hackers got hold of the most valuable info such as passwords and account numbers, theoretically, they were able to identify a person as a customer of the bank. According to experts, the attack was carried out with the purpose of selling confidential information to third parties, which subsequently could use it to "shadow" phishing attacks.
Words of Wisdom:
“We’ve migrated so much of our economy to computer networks because they are faster and more efficient, but there are side effects,” said Dan Kaminsky, a researcher who works as chief scientist at White Ops, a security company.
2. E-mails and Passwords database claimed to be stolen from Gmail, eBay and Dropbox
At the end of May 2014 eBay has announced that a few months earlier the attackers gained access to the corporate network and stole email addresses and passwords. All passwords are encrypted, but fearing that encryption keys could also be stolen, eBay has asked users to change their credentials.
On the 10th of September 2014, it appeared that hackers stole a database of 5 million passwords from Gmail. As it turned out, that the service itself was not hacked but the database of passwords was stolen from other services that use Gmail's e-mail as a login information. As stated by users, most of the passwords were either old or they have never used them. A similar situation happened with Dropbox. This time the hackers claimed that they have stolen more than 7 million passwords, but again the database was a result of phishing attacks of third-party resources.
Words of Wisdom:
"Do not use your e-mail and password pair in third party services for registration or login" – says my man.:)
3. Snapchat - triple Boo hack-attacks
Shortly before the first attack that took place in the begining of 2014, the company Gibson Security announced a possible vulnerability Snapchat, but the messenger has not taken the necessary measures to solve this problem. The hackers claimed that attack was made to indicate the service on their vulnerability.
The second attack occurred in mid-February 2014. The burglars sent the mass e-mail recipes of fruit smoothie to accounts of users friends, to receive access to a variety of combinations of passwords and email addresses. Fortunately attemts were proved harmless, and it was quickly forgotten, but only until October of the same year. Then the Internet got about 100 000 personal photographs that should be automatically deleted by the application. A web client called SnapSaved were hacked, it allowed users to save photos, but actually kept them on the own server.
Words of Wisdom:
1) "Baby shame on you, if you fool me once
Shame on me if you fool me twice.." LeAnn Rimes
2) Do not to use third-party applications that require binding your personal data to your account at the service.
3) Things in the Internet do not disappear without a trace.
4. DDoS attacks on Evernote and Feedly
DDoS attacks that can bring down large services were frequent in 2014. But perhaps the most memorable case was when hackers froze popular service Evernote notes and news aggregator Feedly in from 11 to 13th of June. Fortunately, users’ data has not been lost or compromised.
Words of Wisdom:
Notes? I use pen and paper. News? I read them when I want them. - says my mom.
5. Hacker attacks from North Korea on the Sony Pictures Entertaiment
Nov. 24, North Korean group of hackers calling itself GOP, or Guardians of Peace, has taken responsibility for leaking online employee data from film studio Sony Pictures Entertainment. They revealed their mail correspondence, salaries of directors and senior managers, as well as confidential information about officially not released films. After that hackers have even threatened the studio about possible terrorist attack if the scandalous American comedy "Interview" will be shown on the big screens. US President Barack Obama accused the North Korean authorities of this attack, though they have denied this fact. Sony Pictures temporarily canceled the premiere of the film, it he still came to the big screen, so far only in 200 independent cinemas.
Words of Wisdom:
"My sources point to a rootkit from a Celine Dion CD one of the employees brought in." -mopinla
"I know there’s juicy stuff in the emails and I know some of us have been insulted and I know there’s more to come. No one’s private life can totally withstand public scrutiny. " - Aaron Sorkin