16-30 September 2013 Cyber Attacks Timeline

It’s time for analyzing the main cyber Attacks happened in September.

From an information security perspective, the second half of September has been characterized by the discovery of three operations related to targeted attacks against different countries and sectors. Two in particular, DeputyDog and IceFrog, targeting have a common denominator: Japan.

In the same period. despite the numerous members brought to court, the Anonymous have continued their operations all over the World (Cambodia and New Zealand have been the hottest fronts).

Considering Cyber Crime, this month has raised the attention to the risks posed by fake KVM switches. With a similar device, a gang of cyber-thieves was able to steal £1.3 M from a Barclays Computer. Unfortunately for them this magic box was not able to avoid them to get busted (in any case they deserved a mention in the timeline). For sure you will remember that a similar cyber-plot has also been tried against Santander.

On the cyber warfare front, the temperature of the virtual battlefield among India, Pakistan and Bangladesh remains quite hot. On the other side of the World, US officials have unveiled an escalation of cyber attacks from Iran. Curiously this admission was done few days before Mojtaba Ahmad, the head of Iran’s cyber warfare programme, has been shot dead (although Iranian officials are denying similar claims).

Last but not least the Belgium Government has admitted to have been the victim of a targeted attack. Unfortunately, in this case the suspects are directed to NSA!

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.16-30-september-2013-cyber-attacks-timeline

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

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1-15 June 2014 Cyber Attacks Timeline

It just looks like attackers are enjoying the beginning of the Summer, since the first half of June confirms the decreasing trends.

The controversial 2014 World Cup has revived the hacktivists, and in particular the Anonymous collective who kicked off the Operation OpWorldCup, targeting Brazilian Governmental institutions and Sponsors of the World Cup.

Looking at the Cyber Crime, the most remarkable event of the month is the extortion attempt against  Belgian and French customers of Domino’s Pizza (650,000 users affected). It is also worth to mention the wave of DDoS attacks against Feedly and Evernote, in the first case motivated by extortion, and also the compromising of a US Army database in South Korea.

Last but not least, chronicle report the details of two Cyber Espionage Operations: Operation Molerat, originating allegedly from Middle East, and yet another one from China, discovered by Crowdstrike and attributed to a group dubbed Putter Panda.

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).

1-15 June 2014 Cyber Attacks Timeline

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16-30 November 2014 Cyber Attacks Timeline

The Cyber Monday has just gone, and here we are with the second Cyber Attacks Timeline of November (Part I here).

Even if no massive breaches against retailers have been discovered so far (however do not get carried away since they will probably need several weeks to surface!), this month equally shows some remarkable events for Cyber Crime, Hacktivism and Cyber Espionage.

Actually I just really did not know where to begin, since each sector shows at least one noticeable events. However, after scrolling down the list, I believe that the crown of the month is all for the powerful Regin, the brand new cyber weapon discovered by Symantec. If you believed that the complexity of Stuxnet, Flame and Duqu was a closed page, you will have to change your mind.

This event has overshadowed the massive attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment, allegedly traced to North Korea, in the wake of the release of the comedy “The Interview”, which has been deemed discriminatory against the country and inciting to terrorism. This attack, which has more then one similarity with the infamous Dark Seoul, has completely blocked the Sony internal IT network and is making happy many individuals worldwide, since several Gigabytes of unreleased material are being leaked in these hours.

Last but not least the hacktivists are back! Not only the Syrian Electronic Army has exited stealth mode, with an attack to Gigya, an identity management platform, which has affected many illustrious victims worldwide, but also the Anonymous have been the authors of several attacks, just like the good old days, in the wake of the controversial decision of the Ferguson grand jury decision.

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).

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