1-15 May 2015 Cyber Attacks Timeline

Last Updated on January 23, 2016

It’s time for the first timeline of May, reporting the main cyber attacks occurred between 1 and 15 May 2015.

The Summer is at the gates, but apparently the nice weather is not stopping the attackers from their intentions: I have recorded 52 attacks, a dramatic turnaround in comparison with April, and a strong indication that the slowing trend of the past couple of months has suffered a sudden stop.

All the three main categories (Cyber Crime, Hacktivism and Cyber Espionage) have reported a surge in the number of attacks, and not only in terms of number.

Hacktivism has been characterized by the unwelcome return of the Syrian Electronic Army, who has hacked (again) the Washington Post, and by several operations carried on by the Anonymous collective (with a wide range of targets, spanning from Expo 2015 to the World Trade Organization).

Cyber Crime has been characterized by the publication on the Dark Web of the whole database of mSpy (a mobile spyware Firm) putting at risk potentially 400,000 users, an action that has overshadowed all the other events.

Even the Cyber Espionage landscape appears quite worrisome. I have counted on 4 operations, and of course I could not help but include the attack against the Penn State’s College of Engineering (two cyber intrusions allegedly originating from China, which potentially exposed 18,000 users) and also a “sophisticated attack” against the German Parliament.

As usual, keep the level of attention high, and if you want to have an idea of how fragile our electronic identity is inside the cyberspace, have a look at the timelines of the main Cyber Attacks in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and now 2015 (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).