Last Updated on May 24, 2015

Other troubles for system administrators: March is confirming the 2013 dangerous trend with several high profile breaches against industrial, financial and governmental targets.

The first two weeks of March have begun with the breach to Evernote, and continued with (among the others) the third phase of the infamous Operation Ababil, targeting U.S. Banks and an alleged Chinese attack against the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Additional noticeable events include a wave of DDoS attacks against several Czech Republic’s targets (belonging to media, news and financial sector), a breach suffered by the NIST Vulnerability Database (unfortunately not an isolated example of the attacks against US governmental targets happened in these two weeks) and also the leak of 20,000 records from an Avast! German distributor.

Last but not least, the examined period has also confirmed the role of Twitter as the new mean to make resounding attacks against single individuals or organizations. Qatar Foundation, Saudi Aramco, and France 24 are only several of the organizations fallen victims of accounts hijacking.

Of course, these are only the main events, feel free to scroll down the list to analyze in detail what happened in these two weeks.

If you want to have an idea of how fragile our data are inside the cyberspace, have a look at the timelines of the main Cyber Attacks in 2011, 2012 and now 2013 (regularly updated). You may also want to have a look at the Cyber Attack Statistics, and follow @paulsparrows on Twitter for the latest updates.

Also, feel free to submit remarkable incidents that in your opinion deserve to be included in the timelines (and charts).

Once again, a special thanks to Kim Guldberg AKA @bufferzone for continuously advising me about significant cyber events through the Submit Form! Much Appreciated!

1-15 March 2013 Cyber Attacks Timeline

  1. http://hackread.com/qatar-foundations-twitter-and-facebook-accounts-hacked-by-syrian-electronic-army
  2. https://twitter.com/th3inf1d3l/status/307658779904856064
  3. http://blog.evernote.com/blog/2013/03/02/security-notice-service-wide-password-reset/
  4. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2287138/Public-schoolboy-hacker-masterminded-15m-fraud-jails-IT-class–hacks-prisons-system.html
  5. http://news.softpedia.com/news/South-African-Ministry-of-State-Security-s-Twitter-Account-Hacked-334896.shtml
  6. http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/03/04/us-czech-hackers-idUKBRE92309D20130304
  7. http://www.lupa.cz/clanky/ddos-pokracuje-cilem-jsou-dnes-weby-mobilnich-operatoru/
  8. http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/08/hacker-steals-12000-worth-of-bitcoins-in-brazen-dns-based-attack/
  9. http://hackread.com/bangladeshi-supreme-court-ministry-of-agriculture-websites-breached-against-violence-user-accounts-leaked-by-phr0zenmyst/
  10. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Website-of-AngloAmerican-Mining-Company-Hacked-By-Anonymous-for-OpGreenRights-335092.shtml
  11. http://www.lupa.cz/clanky/ddos-pokracuje-cilem-jsou-dnes-weby-mobilnich-operatoru/
  12. http://thehackernews.com/2013/03/pakistan-intelligence-agency-hacked-by.html
  13. http://hackread.com/france-24-arabia-and-france-24-observers-twitter-accounts-hacked-by-syrian-electronic-army/
  14. http://www.zdnet.com/raspberry-pi-site-suffers-ddos-attack-7000012251/
  15. http://hilf-ol-fozoul.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-bank-of-america-has-been-out-of.html
  16. http://hilf-ol-fozoul.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-fifth-third-bank-also-have-gotten.html
  17. http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/03/06/czech-hackers-banks-idUKL6N0BY52420130306
  18. http://www.lupa.cz/clanky/ddos-pokracuje-cilem-jsou-dnes-weby-mobilnich-operatoru/
  19. http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2013/03/06/saudi-aramco-saudi-arabias-national-oil-company-has-had-its-twitter-hacked/
  20. http://www.cyberwarnews.info/2013/03/06/time-warner-cable-support-service-hacked-and-defaced-by-nullcrew/
  21. http://hackread.com/soneri-banks-online-banking-system-website-hacked-by-pakbugs/
  22. http://hilf-ol-fozoul.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-hsbc-and-us-bank-have-defeated.html
  23. http://hilf-ol-fozoul.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-hsbc-and-us-bank-have-defeated.html
  24. http://hilf-ol-fozoul.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-fifth-third-bank-and-pnc-are-next.html
  25. http://hilf-ol-fozoul.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-fifth-third-bank-and-pnc-are-next.html
  26. http://sg.news.yahoo.com/hackers-assault-czech-mobile-operators-005419745.html
  27. http://www.lupa.cz/clanky/ddos-pokracuje-cilem-jsou-dnes-weby-mobilnich-operatoru/
  28. http://news.softpedia.com/news/German-Studio-Constantin-Film-Hacked-in-Protest-Against-Anti-Piracy-Group-335462.shtml
  29. http://hackread.com/avast-germany-website-hacked-defaced-20000-user-accounts-leaked-by-maxney/
  30. http://www.illsecure.com/2013/03/us-government-state-websites-hacked-in.html
  31. http://www.ehackingnews.com/2013/03/hackers-infect-pentagon-admin-by.html
  32. http://www.afr.com/p/national/cyber_attackers_penetrate_reserve_FEdCLOI50owRMgI0urEYnK
  33. http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/03/dating-site-zoosk-resets-some-user-accounts-following-password-dump/
  34. http://gawker.com/5989904/either-colin-powells-facebook-was-hacked-or-he-has-had-a-sudden-change-of-heart-about-george-w-bush
  35. http://thehackernews.com/2013/03/pakistan-government-servers-messed-up.html
  36. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Indian-Hacker-Leaks-Admin-Passwords-for-35-Pakistani-Government-Sites-336734.shtml
  37. http://hackread.com/serbian-students-hack-billboard-display-advert-in-piratebays-support-video-included
  38. http://anon-news.blogspot.in/2013/03/firma-la-petizione-per-chiudere.html
  39. http://hilf-ol-fozoul.blogspot.com/2013/03/bbt-and-chase-bank-are-first-targets-of.html
  40. http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2013/03/14/bill-gates-personal-info/
  41. http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2013/03/12/celebrity-hack-social-security/
  42. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-12/equifax-transunion-say-hackers-stole-celebrity-reports.html
  43. http://community.websense.com/blogs/securitylabs/archive/2013/03/12/israeli-website-for-international-institute-for-counter-terrorism-waterhole-serving-cve-2012-4969.aspx
  44. https://plus.google.com/u/0/106350285372295328202/posts/HNayDzUoYEz
  45. http://hilf-ol-fozoul.blogspot.com/2013/03/today-attacks-of-qassam-group-shocked.html
  46. http://hilf-ol-fozoul.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-us-bank-has-gotten-out-of-reach.html
  47. http://hilf-ol-fozoul.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-chase-bank-has-targeted-against.html
  48. http://www.ehackingnews.com/2013/03/al-qaeda-electronic-army-hack-us-government.html
  49. http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowldc/national-journal-gets-hacked_b98192
  50. http://thehackernews.com/2013/03/philippines-presidents-website-defaced.html
  51. http://hackread.com/indian-defence-organisation-drdo-servers-hacked-china-among-the-suspects/
  52. http://hilf-ol-fozoul.blogspot.com/2013/03/chase-pnc-bbt-qassam-groups-today-goals.html
  53. http://news.yahoo.com/nkorea-accuses-us-skorea-cyberattacks-074913828–finance.html
  54. http://news.yahoo.com/polish-presidents-computer-network-attacked-hackers-181856391.html
  55. http://www.wbj.pl/article-62178-top-polish-government-systems-hacked-again.html
  56. http://www.ehackingnews.com/2013/03/opblacksummer-two-us-petroleum-websites.html
  57. http://www.cyberwarnews.info/2013/03/14/14000-student-credentials-leaked-from-ktu-career-center-lithuania/
  58. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/15/cctv_hack_casino_poker/
  59. http://news.softpedia.com/news/OpIran-Hacktivists-Launch-DDOS-Attacks-Against-Major-Iranian-Sites-337585.shtml
  60. http://hackread.com/german-broadcaster-deutsche-welles-dw-twitter-account-hacked-by-syrian-electronic-army/
  61. http://anon-news.blogspot.in/2013/03/forza-nuova-lealta-azione-fiamma.html

This Post Has 2 Comments

    1. Paolo Passeri

      No! I just still missed it. Weird since I follow the Cybercrime feed by Reuters, but this news was not reported. In any case thank you very much for the hint! I will update the graph ASAP.
      Thanks.
      Paolo.

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