Cyber criminals enjoyed a lot throughout 2014 and they were almost
everytime in the headlines. The hacker groups have been able to grab
worldwide attention by hacking into Apple’s iCloud and the latest Sony
hack. Hackers have kept the cyber security professionals on their toes
throughout the year. Here are the nine most prominent security breaches
of 2014 which not only made the headlines but has shown the weakest side
of this so-called advanced digital era.
1. Sony attack leads to massive data loss:
It was a black day for Sony when their systems were thrown into deep
shit during late November after an unknown hacker group hijacked their
computers. Some media outlets accused North Korea for the crime, but the
country refused any kind of involvement. FBI has concluded their
investigation and they have found North Korea as responsible for the
entire incident. Since then several stories about the company’s
executives and Hollywood personalities have surfaced, and some critical
remarks have also come into notice about U.S. President Barack Obama.
2. Target breach:
When Target was breached in early 2014, more than 40 million credit
card details and more than 70 million customers’ personal data were
severely compromised. It’s believed that the U.S. retail giant has
upgraded their security systems after the attack. It was reported that
the security team of Target has ignored several system generated
warnings on the attack and the company spent around $80 million in
response to the attack.
3. Dropbox hack:
An anonymous Pastebin user claimed that around seven million Dropbox
account credentials have been compromised, and then the first 400 were
posted directly to Pastebin with a demand for Bitcoin donations to leak
more. Then some follow-up pastes also occurred, which didn’t sound as
genuine ones. A blog post update on the Dropbox attack said, “A
subsequent list of usernames and passwords has been posted online. We’ve
checked and these are not associated with Dropbox accounts.” Dropbox
kept on saying that no breach has taken place and blamed some unrelated
third party services for the compromise of the accounts. Dropbox
maintained that their security has not been breached.
4. Apple iCloud breach:
It gained most attention as the leaked content was quite sensitive.
Hundreds of nude images of Hollywood celebrities including Jennifer
Lawrence and Kate Upton were obtained from Apple’s iCloud service and
then they were leaked at an event called The Fappening. Reddit became a
primary source of the distribution and thereafter it was banned by the
admins. Images were shared on Twitter too. Apple also maintained that
they have not been hacked, but they couldn’t deny the fact that the
images were obtained from iCloud only.
5. JP MORGAN CHASE & CO. Hacking:
The company spent $250 million on cyber security in 2014 but still
they couldn’t prevent hackers from gaining access to their network
extensively. Details of 76 million US households and 7 million SMBs were
compromised and the stolen data included names, addresses, phone
numbers and email addresses. It was believed that Russian hackers are
behind this crime and also hinted at a possible state coordinated
attack.
6. Chinese hacked U.S. weather systems:
Earlier this year Chinese hackers broke into four websites which
belong to the U.S. federal agency that monitors weather systems. The
U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provides weather
information and satellite feeds to the websites. These services were
shut down for more than a week after the hack.
7. eBay hit by 145 million user data breach:
More than 145 million users were affected when a massive hack took
place in eBay’s systems including their email and postal addresses as
well as log-in credentials. Financial data was not stolen though.
8. Home Depot breach:
The company suffered in September when 109 million records were
leaked including 56 million credit card details and 53 million email
addresses. Home Depot accused a third-party vendor for the breach and
hackers spread themselves through networks to steal credit card data at
point-of-sale terminals.
9. Webcam hack:
A Russian website called Insecam streamed live videos from thousands
of webcams. In the U.K., around 584 webcams were in display including
videos from offices, factories, homes and also a pub. The firm claimed
it didn’t hack security cameras, instead they got access as they were
not password protected or using default passwords.
