16-31 August 2014 Cyber Attacks Timeline

August is gone, and here we are with the list of the most noticeable cyber attacks occurred during the second half of the month (first part here).

This period will be probably remembered for the massive cyber attack against Community Health Systems (4.5 million records compromised), the wave of coordinated attacks targeting JPMorgan Chase and at least four other US banks, the malware targeting 51 franchised stores of UPS, and, last but not least, the mother of all breaches in Korea (220 million records containing personal information 0f 27 million people). Another noticeable event was also the coordinated DDoS attacks against Sony Entertainment Network, Xbox Live and other online gaming services.

For what concerns cyber espionage, chronicles report, among other things, the massive coordinated cyber attack against 50 Norwegian oil and energy companies, the discovery of three cyber attacks (within the past three years) against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the theft of classified information from the Malaysian agencies involved in the MH370 investigation.

Instead, nothing particularly meaningful has been reported for hacktivism: many sparse actions (mostly against direct or indirect interests of Israel) of limited impact and hence without particular consequences.

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 and now 2014 (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).16-31-august-2014-cyber-attacks-timeline-v2

(more…)

Continue Reading 16-31 August 2014 Cyber Attacks Timeline

1-15 September 2014 Cyber Attacks Timeline

This month will be probably remembered for the Home Depot breach. Yet another one caused by the same POS malware family that hit Target, with a similar dramatic extension: unfortunately the retailer believes that 56 million of credit cards could have been compromised in this case. After such a similar gigantic breach there is not so much to add as far as Cyber Crime is concerned, as it overshadowed all the rest.

In regards of Hacktivism, this has been a terrible month for Pakistan, which has attracted the unwelcome attentions of hacktivists protesting against the corruption of the government. As a consequence dozens of government sites have been bombarded with DDOS attacks, (with few cases of defacements and leaks).

Nothing particularly important to mention for Cyber Espionage. After the spree of the past months, maybe is time for a break.

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 and now 2014 (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).1-15-september-2014-cyber-attacks-timeline1

(more…)

Continue Reading 1-15 September 2014 Cyber Attacks Timeline

16-31 July 2014 Cyber Attacks Timeline

July is gone and hence it’s time, as usual, to summarize the main cyber events happened in the second half of this month (Part I here).

For a strange coincidence this month has shown an unusual number of breaches dating back to several years ago (2010-2012) and reported only now: Catch of The Day, Think W3 Limited, Paddy Power and Lasko are the organizations affected.

Looking quickly at Cyber Crime, these two weeks have brought the breach to The Wall Street Journal (by W0rm the same author of the breach to CNET), the disclosure of a failed attempt to disrupt the Nasdaq in 2010, a breach to the website of the European Central Bank, an extensive attack aimed to compromise the Tor Infrastructure, and, last bunt not least, the DHS advisory related to Backokff, a PoS Malware already compromising 600 organizations throughout the U.S.

Moving to Cyber Espionage, this period will be remembered for the Canadian allegations against China, related to a cyber attack against The National Research Council and the possible compromising three Israeli defense contractors responsible for building the “Iron Dome” missile shield program.

Israel was even under the radar of the Hacktivists, who concentrated there their efforts in support of the #OpSaveGaza operation.

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 and now 2014 (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).

16-31 July 2014 Cyber Attacks Timeline (more…)

Continue Reading 16-31 July 2014 Cyber Attacks Timeline