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April 2012 Cyber Attacks Timeline (Part II)

Post author:Paolo Passeri
Post last modified:May 24, 2015
Post category:Cyber Attacks Timelines Security
Post comments:2 Comments
Reading time:7 mins read
Post published:May 3, 2012

Here the first part covering the cyber attacks from 1 to 15 April.

April is over and here it is the second half of the Cyber Attacks Timeline covering the time period spanning from 16 to 30 april 2012.

The last two weeks of this month have been characterized by several remarkable events (at least for the newspapers), such as the #OpBahrain which unleashed a trail of attacks from the Anonymous against websites related to the Formula 1 GP in Bahrain. Other noticeable events triggered by hacktivism include several DDoS attacks against CIA, MI6, Department of Justice, and a couple of Law Enforcement Agencies which continue to be a preferred target for hackers.

On the Cyber Crime front (still the major apparent motivation for the attacks) this month reports, among the events, a breach to Nissan and other DDoS attacks against the District of Columbia, the State of Washington and Nasdaq (I would not define them just motivated by hacktivism). Other events include a couple of 0-day vulnerabilities targeting popular e-mail services and affecting potentially million of users.

Last but not least, April has brought a new cyber attack to Iran crude oil industry, despite, so far, there are no clear evidences of a new Stuxnet-like Cyber Attack. This is not the only episode targeting Iran which also suffered 3 million of banks accounts compromised.

For the chronicle I decided to insert in the timeline also the breach to the game publisher Cryptic Studios. Although it happened in 2010 (sic) it was discovered only few days ago…

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 and 2012 (regularly updated), and follow @paulsparrows on Twitter for the latest updates.

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1-15 April 2014 Cyber Attacks Timeline

Post author:Paolo Passeri
Post last modified:May 24, 2015
Post category:Cyber Attacks Timelines Security
Post comments:0 Comments
Reading time:8 mins read
Post published:April 24, 2014

And here it is the timeline reporting the Cyber Attacks happened during the first half of April 2014, a month probably long remembered within the Infosec Chronicles for the discovery of the terrible Heartbleed bug (two attacks have been recorded, so far, related to this devastating vulnerability).

Besides the infamous Heartbleed, the most important events of this timeline are related to Cyber Crime. Germany in particular had a bad surprise, with the discovery of a list of 18 million compromised e-mail accounts and passwords, affecting all major German Internet service providers. The list of the remarkable targets also includes Lacie, victim of a malware putting at risk the users who performed on-line purchases from the company web site, the Harley Medical Group (500,000 accounts potentially compromised) and, once again, South Korea where unknown hackers were able to steal the personal information of about 200,000 credit card users, racking up fraudulent charges of about $115,ooo.

The feared wave of cyber attacks against Israel, promised by several Anonymous affiliated hacktivists for the 7th of April, did not happen. The impact of the attacks was limited and in many cases several old leaks were ‘recycled’.

Last but not least, Germany’s Space Research Center in Cologne, was the victim of a targeted attack. Suspects point to China.

As usual, 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).

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