Last Updated on February 4, 2019

Let’s start this 2019 with the first timeline of January, covering the main cyber attacks in the first fortnight of this month: I have collected a total of 47 events, substantially in line with the 49 collected in the last timeline of December.

The prize for the first (but for sure not the last) mega breach of 2019 goes to Blank Media Games, whose browser-based game “Town of Salem” has suffered the compromise of 7.6 million users.

In terms of economic damage, the Italian company Tecnimont SPA, is undoubtedly the main victim of this fortnight: Chinese hackers have defrauded the Indian subsidiary, stealing the equivalent of $18.6 million.

And the new year hasn’t started any better for the crypto sector: Cryptopia is the first exchange to be breached, with the equivalent of $1.2 million transferred to an unknown address, while “a deep chain reorganization” of the Ethereum Classic blockchain leads to the “double spending” (read theft) of the equivalent $1.1 million.

Last but not least, it turned out that the state-sponsored actors of the Lazarus Group where behind the recent intrusion suffered by Chilean interbank network Redbanc.

But the list is too long to be summarized in a few lines, so feel free to browse entire timeline to have an idea of the threat landscape. Feel free to share it and don’t forget to follow @paulsparrows on Twitter for the latest updates.

wdt_ID ID Date Author Target Description Attack Target Class Attack Class Country Link Tags
1 1 20/12/2019 ? The Podiatric Offices of Bobby Yee The Podiatric Offices of Bobby Yee notifies 24,000 patients after ransomware attack Malware Q Human health and social work activities CC US The Podiatric Offices of Bobby Yee, ransomware
2 2 28/12/2019 ? St Lawrence College Some parents of students attending St Lawrence College are scammed by crooks into sending an undisclosed amount of money. Account Hijacking P Education CC UK St Lawrence College
3 3 01/01/2019 ? Victorian Government The work details of 30,000 Victorian public servants have been stolen in a data breach, after part of the Victorian Government directory was downloaded by an unknown party after an employee's email account is compromised. Account Hijacking O Public administration and defence, compulsory social security CC AU Victoria
4 4 01/01/2019 ? Volodymyr Zelenskiy Website Hackers launch an attack on the website of showman Volodymyr Zelenskiy following the announcement of his candidacy for president on New Year’s Eve. DDoS X Individual CC UA Volodymyr Zelenskiy
5 5 02/01/2019 TheHackerGiraffe FriendlyH4xx0r Misconfigured Chromecasts, smart TVs, and Google Home devices A hacker duo claims to have hijacked thousands of internet-exposed Chromecasts, smart TVs, and Google Home devices to play a video urging users to subscribe to PewDiePie's YouTube channel. Misconfiguration X Individual CC >1 TheHackerGiraffe, FriendlyH4xx0r, Chromecasts, smart TVs, Google Home
6 6 02/01/2019 ? BlankMediaGames (BMG) BlankMediaGames (BMG) admits that a hacker has stolen the personal details of 7.6 million users of browser-based game the "Town of Salem". Unknown R Arts entertainment and recreation CC US BlankMediaGames, BMG, Town of Salem
7 7 02/01/2019 ? China Railway Data thieves steal the personal information of nearly 5 million people from an unconfirmed number of Chinese online ticket reservation platforms, according to Beijing police, who arrested a suspect in the case. Account Hijacking H Transportation and storage CC CN China Railway
8 8 02/01/2019 ? Dormant Twitter accounts Exploiting Twitter’s legacy lack of email confirmation, unknown attackers hijack dormant Twitter accounts to spread pro-ISIS terrorist propaganda. Account Hijacking X Individual CW >1 Twitter, ISIS
9 9 03/01/2019 ? Luas The website of the tram operator Luas is taken down after a cyber attack. The author threatens to dump the records of about 3,000 if the ransom of 1 BTC ($3,843 worth) is not paid. Defacement H Transportation and storage CC IE Luas
10 10 03/01/2019 ? Android Users Researchers from Trend Micro detect MobSTSPY, a powerful Android malware, downloaded by at least 100,000 users, capable of snooping on user location, communications logs, and stealing files and account credentials. Malware X Individual CC >1 Trend Micro, MobSTSPY, Google Play, Android
ID Date Author Target Description Attack Target Class Attack Class Country Link Tags

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